Different
by TheoBurr
Summary: One word prompt I got from an anon: "Haircut" on tumblr. A different universe. A different haircut. (college AU setting)
1. Chapter 1

Gail Peck didn't know how to deal with her feelings.

Years of emotional abuse and neglect didn't help that fact. It wasn't like anyone in her family noticed. The only people who knew were the people she pushed away or the people whose lives she had ruined out of spite after being hurt by them. She had become skilled at getting away with being a bitch. People still wanted to be around or be with her despite everything. Maybe they thought they could change her. Maybe they thought they were just different.

No one was different.

Everyone ended up hurting her in the end.

This time, there was no one else to take it out on except herself and as she stared at herself in the mirror, surrounded by her hair on the floor at her feet, she knew someone would notice. She sighed as she ran the fingers of one hand through the choppy hair left on her head and pulled the bottle of whiskey to her lips with the other. She'd have to get it professionally fixed if she didn't want to look like she just escaped the psychiatric hospital.

The sound of the bathroom door opening dragged Gail out of her thoughts and she looked over just as the woman rounded the corner to the line of sinks Gail was currently standing in front of. It was starting to dawn on Gail's drunken brain that it was probably a bad idea to have an episode in her dorm.

"Sorry, I didn't…" The woman stopped in her tracks and took in the sight of Gail with an open bottle of alcohol standing in a halo of blonde hair. "Are you okay? You know there's no alcohol in the dorms right?"

"Which is it?"

"What?"

"Which do you care more about? Me or the alcohol?" asked Gail with the snarkiest tone she could manage.

"Well, I like to think I'm capable of caring about more than one thing at a time. Being sober helps," the woman replied.

Gail studied her unwanted companion quietly for a moment. She was a little taller than Gail and looked like just rolled out of a thrift store's half price bin. With her thick rim glasses, worn down cardigan, and vintage Goonies tank top it was like she was a diagram of hipster fashion but with a tan. If Gail wasn't annoyed with her she'd swear the woman was beautiful.

"Look nerd, can I have my break down in peace? Thanks."

Gail turned back to the mirror and swallowed down another mouthful of liquor. Then the bottle was gently pulled from her hand and when she turned to yell at the mystery woman she ended up caught off guard the second their eyes met. Unknown to her, this gave the intruder the opening she needed.

"As a future doctor I can't in good conscious leave you to destroy yourself," she said.

"Okay, I was originally kidding with the nerd comment but apparently I was spot on," smirked Gail as she continued to try and regain her composure. "Now give me back the bottle and go back to your shower."

The woman made no indication she was listening to Gail other than the way one side of her mouth curled up slightly into a lopsided grin.

"Would you like me to fix your hair?"

"What?" Now it was Gail's turn to be confused.

"I can fix your hair," she repeated. "If you'd like."

Gail just watched her for a minute before shrugging.

"Sure. I guess."

The woman capped the bottle of whiskey and shoved it into the bag she'd had on her shoulder. Then she pulled Gail with her toward the showers. When they reached the furthest stall from the door, Gail was fairly certain she was about to be murdered.

"What's your name?" asked Gail.

"Holly."

"I'm-"

"Gail Peck."

"Okay, I was only kidding with myself a second ago when I thought you were going to murder me but now I'm-"

"We have the same Intro to Forensics class. You'd probably know that if you didn't come in hungover all the time."

Never in her 19 years of life had Gail ever met someone who had so effectively shut her up. Well, besides her mother. But this wasn't in a terrible, demoralizing way so Gail wasn't really sure how to process it. The alcohol didn't help.

Holly pulled a little black bag out of her tote and pulled a pair of hair cutting scissors out. She reached up and ran her fingers through the choppy mess on top of Gail's head. Without thinking Gail closed her eyes and moved into the touch. In an instance Gail realized that the only people who'd ever touched her before were the rough hands of boys whether it was wrestling with her brother and his friends or fooling around with the men who used her. Swallowing and shaking her head she fought back the tears on the edge of her eyes and thanked the dim lighting of the bathroom.

"Keep your head still okay? I don't want to mess this up." Holly chuckled a little at the last part.

"What? Are you saying you don't like my modern interpretation of a haircut."

Holly laughed.

"Modern art is garbage."

"The doctor's an art expert, huh?"

"Future doctor," corrected Holly as she started snipping lightly at Gail's hair. "And that doesn't mean I can't have opinions on art."

"I don't know doc," said Gail. "Sounds a little judgey to me."

The more Gail focused on talking the less focused she was on how close Holly was to her face. Holly's lopsided grin at being called 'doc' definitely didn't help though. Sadly, Holly didn't take the teasing bait and quietly focused on Gail's hair. As the minutes passed and Gail studied every individual feature of Holly's face she was starting to wonder.

"Why are you being so nice to me? We've never said two words to each other before now."

"Actually you have." Holly grinned. "Professor Stein brought in donuts and you said 'move nerd.'"

"I'm not a good person."

Holly met Gail's gaze for a moment. The way her eyes darted around Gail's face it seemed as if she was looking for something. Then one corner of Holly's lips curled up and Gail found it made it hard to not smile back. As Holly went back to trimming down Gail's disaster of a haircut the silence and intimacy of the moment started to get to Gail again. When Holly turned Gail around so she could cut the back it helped ease Gail's racing heart but she found herself trying to turn to look at the other woman.

"How do you know how to cut hair?"

"My mom was a hairdresser when she was younger. Taught me and my sister how to cut our own hair," said Holly.

"My mom's a cop. She taught me how to take apart a Glock 17, clean it, reassemble it, and shoot it," said Gail with barely a thought. "Not as practical as cutting hair."

"I'm sure knowing how to do all that can be useful," said Holly. "Somehow."

"Oh it'll be really useful when I'm a cop. But at 10? Not so much."

"Twisted," said Holly as she started to run her hands through Gail's hair to try and spot anything that might have been left uneven.

"I feel like my whole life has been mapped out for me. Like, I need to go to get my degree, go to the academy, excel as a cop, become a detective, etcetera," mumbled Gail into the wall. "Meeting the man of parents dreams is somewhere in there. And something about a house in the suburbs with two point five children…"

As Gail spoke, Holly turned her back around to face her and continued to check Gail's hair for any spots she might have missed. She caught Gail's gaze for a minute and tilted her head to one side.

"How do you have half a child?"

"Maybe it's supposed to be a dog," shrugged Gail.

"So, what's a cat? A quarter of a child?" Holly smiled her lopsided smile and Gail rolled her eyes.

Holly leaned back against the divider of the shower stall and looked at Gail.

"Man of your parents dreams, huh?"

"Hey, maybe it will work out better that way. It's not like the ones I keep picking are all that great."

Holly pursed her lips and nodded before smirking.

"You know what will help?"

"More whiskey?"

"Nope," said Holly, popping the 'p'.

Holly pushed herself off the wall and moved toward Gail. Not understanding what was happening Gail stood her ground as Holly placed a hand on each shoulder and turned Gail so she was in the middle of the stall.

"Washing this mess down the drain."

Before Gail could register the words, Holly had already leaned forward and reached behind Gail. As the freezing cold water hit Gail square in the back Holly pushed her back slightly so it was running over her head and stepped back out of the stall. Holly did all of this while trying to stiffle her laughter. She couldn't tell if it was the shock of the cold water on her system or the alcohol still running through her body but Gail knew that had anyone else done this she would have already destroyed them, verbally and probably physically. Instead she just stood under the cold water staring at Holly as she giggled to herself about what she had done.

For a moment Gail just enjoyed watching Holly revel in her own bad joke. Then Holly moved to go into her bag and Gail smiled to herself as she reached out and pulled the nerd under the spray of water by the hem of her tank top. As Holly yelped and tried to back away Gail turned them so Holly couldn't easily get out of the stall and held her under the freezing cold water. Both girls laughed at the stupidity of the situation but didn't move. It wasn't until it dawned on Gail's drunken mind how being pressed against Holly under the running water was making her heart race. Especially with the way Holly's hand rested on Gail's hip just at the hem of her shirt.

Quickly shaking herself out of the moment, Gail backed up and made little gun shooting motions with her index fingers.

"Thanks for the haircut, nerd," said Gail. "See you in class."

Holly's smile faulted slightly as she was left soaking wet in the shower stall but she waved and just let Gail leave. Maybe Holly understood. Maybe she didn't. Gail didn't really care. Well, she did. But she didn't. It was a complicated web of denial.

Gail left a trail of dripping water as she headed through the bathroom toward the exit. As she passed the sinks and the pile of hair on the floor she looked up at herself in the mirror and froze. She smiled slightly as she reached up and ran her hand through her hair. It actually looked really good. Matted to her head with water but still good. She thought about how easily Holly had stopped to help her and looked back toward the showers.

Maybe some people were different but Gail wasn't, even if she looked like she was.

Gail still didn't know how to deal with her feelings.


	2. Chapter 2

As with most Monday mornings, Gail woke with a raging headache and a mighty need to shove super greasy food in her face. She threw a hoodie on over her t-shirt and pulled a pair of skinny jeans off the floor and up her legs followed by her boots. In the bathroom she inspected her hair. It actually came out looking really awesome. She ran her fingers through it and for a second she remembered the feel of Holly's fingers following the same path. Shaking her head, she brushed her teeth to get the taste of whiskey out of her mouth. Then it dawned on her.

"That nerd still has my bottle."

After a quick stop by the cafe for some coffee she headed toward her class. She would have to stop by a fast food joint after Intro to Forensics because she knew she was only going to just make it to class at the pace she was walking and she wasn't about to move any faster with the way her head was pounding. When she made it to the old science building the hallway outside of the lecture hall was already empty.

With a small kick to the door, Gail pushed into the cramped room and pulled her sunglasses off but left her hood up. While she liked the look of her new hair she didn't really feel like fielding any questions from nosey people yet. Doctor Stein looked over at her and sighed.

"How many times must I ask you to not kick the door open, Ms. Peck?"

"I'm not touching that filthy door with any other part of my body. This building is an outbreak waiting to happen."

Gail headed to her usual seat in the back row but scanned the faces of the students. It wasn't like she was looking for Holly or anything. She just wanted to see who else was in her class. What if she had another mental break down and ran into another one of them. As she reached her seat and threw her stuff into the seat next to it she was actually a little disappointed that Holly was nowhere to be seen. Maybe Holly really was just a serial killer stalker.

Then she looked up at Dr. Stein's desk.

There was Holly, looking right at her with that dumb lopsided grin. Then Holly turned toward Dr. Stein and they started talking.

"She's the fucking teacher's assistant," said Gail under her breath. Then she thought about it. "Yeah okay of course she is."

Gail never paid attention to TAs.

For the first time in Gail's life she actually couldn't focus at all on what the teacher was talking about. Thankfully she recorded all of Stein's lectures. She just couldn't stop looking over at Holly who was grading papers during the entire class. There was a handful of times where Holly would look up at the class and Gail had to snap her attention to chalk board. When the class ended Gail hung out and waited for everyone to leave before approaching the front. Dr. Stein was talking to another student but that was okay because Gail had her sights set elsewhere.

As Gail approached the occupied desk, Holly looked up and pushed her glasses up her nose while breaking out into a huge, crooked, smile.

"What can I do for you Ms. Peck?"

"You're the TA," said Gail. She knew she was glaring slightly but she didn't really care.

"How very astute," teased Holly.

Gail shook her head. Holly was having too much fun at her expense.

"You said you were in this class."

"And so I am. I am physically in this class at the same time as you." Holly's smile actually spread across her lips. Gail couldn't decide if it was annoying or attractive.

"You owe me a bottle of whiskey." Gail crossed her arms across her chest in a show of defiance.

"And if alcohol was allowed in the dorms I'd totally pay you back for your half empty bottle of whiskey," said Holly who mirrored Gail by crossing her arms but also tilted her head to the side.

"A nerd and a narc. Who'd have thought." Gail smirked.

Holly laughed, breaking the somewhat tense air between them that had built with each verbal jab.

"I didn't narc on you. I just tossed the bottle," said Holly. "As a RA I can't exactly let people run around getting drunk in the dorms even if you aren't on my floor."

"Wow. You're a TA and a RA. That's...something."

"Nerdy?"

"Hey, you said it not me," said Gail. "You know what I can't figure out about last night?"

Holly didn't say anything she just tilted her head to one side and looked at Gail expectantly.

"Why'd you help me? You're obviously in a position to get someone like me kicked out," said Gail. "So, why'd you help me instead."

Holly pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and watched Gail as if she was thinking about what to say. Then her eyes looked over to the side of Gail. Holly immediately got up and started gathering her papers and books up.

"Dr. Stein, I've finished all the grading from last week. They're in your desk."

"Thank you Ms. Stewart," said Dr. Stein as he moved behind the desk and patted Holly on the back. "I'm so lucky to have you helping me out this term. Are you coming to the lecture tonight?"

"It's no problem Dr. Stein. And you know I wouldn't miss it for the world," said Holly before glancing at Gail. "I was actually just telling Gail about it."

"Oh?" Dr. Stein looked between the two of them oblivious to their previous conversation. "I wouldn't think a criminal justice major would care about biology. Well, you're more than welcome to come Ms. Peck. The more the merrier actually. Sometimes it gets a little depressing talking to the same small group of people over and over."

Gail glanced at Holly's smug smile and back at Dr. Stein's hopeful one.

"I'll definitely be there."

Dr. Stein smiled and nodded as he headed toward his office door. He was a very nice old man. Intro to Forensics was actually one of two classes that she actually enjoyed and not just because the lecture hall's dark ambiance helped soothe her near constant hangovers. When Dr. Stein was gone, Gail turned back to Holly who was packing her book and papers into her bookbag.

"What did I just agree to?"

"The Beauty of Diatoms," said Holly without looking up. "Starts in here at seven tonight."

Holly slung her bookbag onto her shoulder and smiled at Gail as she headed passed her. For a moment Gail stood frozen in place. She just got sassed, tricked into a biology lecture, and ignored. Who the hell did Holly Stewart think she was? Gail quickly jogged to catch up to Holly in the hallway.

"You didn't answer my question," said Gail.

Holly stopped and looked at Gail.

"You said you don't understand why I helped you," said Holly. Gail nodded. "But you know what I don't understand? You aced the midterm while smelling like you bathed in a bottle of tequila."

"I spilled it on my shirt," said Gail quietly. Holly's smile was small but warm.

"I helped you because that's just who I am," said Holly. "I didn't turn you in because I figured maybe you're just going through something."

Gail felt like she was frozen in place. It was like Holly just reached inside her and pulled out her skeleton. Things Gail thought were hidden were obviously a lot more visible than she originally thought. As Gail was lost in thought, Holly stepped closer and pushed the hood off Gail's head and ran her fingers through the soft blonde mess. Gail sighed at the feeling she'd tried to forget earlier that morning.

"Turned out pretty good," said Holly with a smile. Then she pulled Gail's hood up, stepped back, and pulled the little strings that tightened the hood around Gail's face. "I'll see you later, Peck. 7pm sharp."

As Gail fought with the hood to open it back up and pull it off she watched Holly head down the hall toward whatever the woman's next class was. Holly Stewart was dangerous. She had completely thrown Gail for a loop since the second she stepped into that bathroom and took that bottle of whiskey out of her hand. Gail was used to being in control of her interactions with other people. Some would call it manipulative, Gail called it reassurance that things would go her way. She thought she needed to regain that control with Holly. So, Gail would be at that lecture, sober and at the top of her game. Holly obviously thought she had some part of Gail figured out and it was time for Gail to show her that no one really knew Gail Peck.

Hell, there were times Gail was pretty sure she didn't even know herself.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you so much for all of your comments about the story. I hope you enjoy another chapter. :)

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For the fourth time in the past thirty minutes Gail changed her clothes. She hadn't thought to ask what was the appropriate attire for a biology lecture but she was pretty sure that her first choice of what she wore the previous day wasn't a good one. Getting tired of her own indecisiveness she finally settled on just a plain black shirt, jeans, her leather jacket and boots. It was casual enough that she wouldn't have to feel overdressed and nice enough that it would only really look out of place at something formal. And Gail really doubted that this was a formal event considering the fact that it was being held in the moldy old science building.

As she headed out of the dorm Gail ran into a couple of people from her other classes who complimented her "new look". She just forced a grin and nodded to some while just ignoring others as she nervously ran her fingers through her hair. One thing Gail absolutely loved about college versus high school was that she didn't feel a single ounce of pressure to have friends. Sure there were people she enjoyed talking to in her classes but their lives and schedules were all so different for the most part that she didn't feel like she had to keep talking to them. Technically this lecture was the first social thing she went to that didn't involve alcohol.

Gail reached the old science building and headed into the main hallway. It was completely empty except for a now familiar body leaning against the wall across from the door to Stein's lecture hall. Illuminated in the dim hallway by her phone, Holly was completely distracted and Gail took the opportunity to look her over. She had just been drunkenly joking when she called Holly a hipster when they were in the bathroom she was actually pretty sure of it now. Wearing a skater dress, leggings, an oversized sweater, and boots Holly looked like she stepped out of an American Apparel catalogue. As Gail got closer she realized that Holly was listening to music and it wasn't until she was maybe a foot away that Holly noticed her.

"You actually came," said Holly with a very warm smile as she pulled her earbuds out.

"I said I would," said Gail. "Why? Was not showing up an option? I can just leave?"

Gail moved to turn around and leave but Holly grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward her. Gail wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the way her heart skipped when she was ended up bumping right into the other woman.

"Come on, you're already here. You might as well learn something," said Holly. She loosened her grip but kept her hand on Gail's arm as she pulled them both through the door to the lecture hall.

"Holly, I don't even know what a diatom is."

"Diatoms, Ms. Peck," started Dr. Stein, "are a microalgae found in nearly every habitat where water is found."

Gail smiled weakly at the realization that Dr. Stein had heard her just as they walked through the door. Holly was of course smiling that same ridiculous lopsided grin that almost always seemed plastered to her face. Without another word Holly pulled Gail up the stairs to the row just behind everyone else. Gail was fairly certain her class was bigger than the number of people currently at the lecture but she didn't say anything in case Dr. Stein somehow heard her again.

"Diatoms can be incredibly useful in very specific forensic cases," said Holly suddenly but quietly. Gail turned and watched Holly speak while she pulled a small notebook and pen out of her jacket pocket. "If you find a body in freshwater, diatoms can be used to tell if it was post-mortem or ante-mortem drowning. They can also tie people to freshwater crime scenes."

"Is that what this is about?"

"Well, um...no," said Holly sheepishly. "It's just about diatoms."

"That's kind of disappointing," said Gail as she turned away from Holly and tried to get comfortable. "The forensics stuff sounded cooler."

Out of the corner of her eyes, Gail could see Holly was looking at her and she seemed like she was about to say something when Dr. Stein turned off the lights and started his introduction. Holly being the nerd Gail knew she was she kept quiet and after a moment finally turned her attention to the projection up on the wall. For the most part Gail paid attention to the lecture and she actually did learn a lot about diatoms, even if the majority of it was just useless information to her future career as a cop. However, Gail kept periodically getting distracted by really insignificant things. Like the way Holly's arm would sometimes end up pressed against hers when the other woman shifted her weight in her seat. Or the way Holly would cross her legs and her dress would ride up her thighs.

It was the movement. It distracted Gail. Holly just moved too much. Nothing else.

Gail was dragged out of her thoughts when her brain registered that Dr. Stein was talking about art. Then just as quickly as Gail had gotten bored she was interested again. Dr. Stein was showing slides of microscopic art made with the glass shelled diatoms. She was starting to understand why the title was "The Beauty of Diatoms".

"I thought you hated art," whispered Gail after she leaned closer to Holly.

Holly turned to look at Gail and smiled while shaking her head.

When the lecture finally ended, sadly with more less-than-entertaining science talk, Gail waited until they had said goodnight to the doctor and were back out in the hallway to confront Holly with her lies again.

"I thought you hated art," repeated Gail.

"I don't like modern art and that's not modern art," said Holly as she leaned against the wall where they met earlier. "The earliest pieces were made in the 1800s during the Romanticism and Realism movements and any current art made with diatoms is considered Contemporary."

"So, when you said you were a future doctor did you mean one of those fake doctors who have a degree in something like Art History?"

Holly's smile slowly grew as Gail spoke. When Gail was done, Holly laughed and shook her head. As Holly went back to looking at Gail she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth which was something Gail tried to ignore.

"Are you hungry?" asked Holly finally.

"What?"

It was so completely off topic.

"Are you hungry?" repeated Holly. "I haven't eaten dinner yet so I was going to head out and go eat somewhere. Do you want to join me? My treat. Since you showed up to the lecture and all."

"Well if you're paying…" Gail could always eat if someone else was paying. "Though I don't see how the two of us could possibly fit on the custom two speed I'm sure you own."

"Well, I'd say we could take your car but freshmen aren't allowed to keep vehicles on campus," said Holly.

Gail shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket and rolled her eyes. Though she was sure Holly already saw the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Holly headed off down the hallway the opposite way that Gail had entered the building and Gail tailed her while mentally berating herself. It seemed that Holly was more than capable of keeping up with Gail's smartass remarks. Normally people would already be done with Gail's comments and they would just write her off as a bitch. But, so far, not Holly.

"What exactly is your major?" asked Gail as she caught up with the stride of Holly's long, tone, legs.

"Biology."

"So, no Art History then?"

"Nope."

"Why do you know so much about art 'movements' then?"

"Well my aunt happens to be one of those fake doctors who have a degree in something like Art History," said Holly, copying the way Gail had said it a few moments before. "And I've spent a lot of summers at her house reading books and going to lectures."

Gail just nodded and quietly followed Holly out to the parking lot. They walked up to a fairly new SUV and Gail looked from Holly to the vehicle with her eyebrows raised. Gail hadn't actually been expecting a bike but she also wasn't expecting a car made in the past decade. Holly noticed and she smiled as she pulled keys out of her jacket pocket and hit the button to unlock it.

"Sorry, my two-speed is in the shop," said Holly with a wink. "I hope this doesn't ruin your perception of me. You're still more than welcome to come over and listen to some indie folk music on vinyl if you want."

"Ha ha," said Gail dryly. For once Gail actually couldn't think of a smartass retort. She just straight out got called out in her teasing.

They made their way to a small diner a bit away from campus and headed inside. It was empty since it was just out of a reasonable walking distance for lazy college students. Gail appreciated it; she hated crowded places. An older woman with a very warm smile greeted them and let them seat themselves while she grabbed them some menus. After they got situated in a booth in the corner the server made her way over with some water and the menus and introduced herself as Mary.

"Just let me know whenever you ladies are ready, okay?"

"Yes ma'am. Thank you very much," said Holly.

Gail merely nodded.

"So, what made you choose criminal justice?" asked Holly without looking up from the menu.

Gail thought about her answer while she watched Holly push her glasses back up her nose as she tried to decide what to order. To be honest or not to be honest. That was Gail's current conundrum.

"My mom," said Gail finally.

Holly looked up at her and tilted her head to the side.

"Pretty much everyone in my family is a cop. I really didn't have much of a choice," said Gail as she avoided Holly's eyes and busied herself with her own menu. "A criminal justice degree just made sense."

"Do you want to be a police officer?"

Gail glanced up for a second then shrugged. The way Holly stared at Gail when she was giving her all of her attention made Gail feel like her skin was on fire. And she honestly figured being on fire would at least make her more worthy of the attention.

"Yes," said Gail.

"But you wonder whether or not it's based on your mother's desire or your own," said Holly matter of factly. It was as if she could read Gail's mind and with furrowed brows, Gail looked up at Holly and actually held her gaze.

"Sorry," said Holly suddenly. She shook her head and smiled at Gail apologetically. "My mom's a psychiatrist and sometimes it's just...I kind of end up sounding like one. I'm told that it can be infuriating."

If she were in this situation with any other person Gail would have gotten up and left. She hated being psychoanalyzed. But there was something about Holly that kept Gail's feet planted on the floor. Maybe it was the way she sounded like she actually cared. Maybe it was the way she seemed really embarrassed when she realized what she said. Gail wasn't sure but she did know what it was like to live in the shadow of her parents' career for so long that sometimes it felt like it bled into her own personality.

"Psychiatrist huh? Hairdressing just wasn't cutting it?" Gail tried to play it off like she wasn't just cut to the core by what Holly said and figured a bad pun was the way to go. She wasn't really sure why she cared about comforting Holly but she did. "Must have been fun growing up."

Holly scrunched her face up.

"I don't know if fun's how I'd describe it," said Holly. "I mean, she doesn't analyze everyone she meets. That would be insane. But as her children, my sister and I basically got what amounted to never ending therapy growing up."

Holly pulled a face and changed her tone to what Gail amounted to an imitation of her mother.

"Holly, are you acting out because you feel like your father and I aren't giving you enough individual attention?" Holly let out a small laugh. "I just wanted to know what it was like to be drunk, mom. No need for a couch session. We ended up going to Disney World."

"You got drunk so your mom took you to Disney World?"

"Basically," said Holly with a shrug. "She said we needed the time away to bond as a family."

"I got caught drinking when I was 16," said Gail. "My mom threw me in a cell with an alcoholic who smelled like vomit."

Holly gave Gail a very small warm smile. Gail swallowed and looked down at the rolled silverware she'd started unconsciously fidgeting with.

"Well, next time we go on the annual Stewart Family Adventure you're more than welcome to come bond with my family. We wear matching sweatshirts," said Holly.

"I think I'd rather be in jail with Julius again."

Holly let out one of the most genuine laughs Gail had ever heard in relation to something she said and she couldn't help but smile. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair nervously as a way to try to hide her face but when she looked up and saw that lopsided and knowing grin it told Gail that Holly had caught her. However, Holly didn't say a word about it. She just glanced up at Gail's hand still in the short mess on top of her head and smiled.

"It really did come out nice."

Gail was fairly certain she was actually on fire.

"So, what? Is everyone in your family some kind of doctor?" Gail would be lying if she said she wasn't a little more than intimidated. Sure, Gail's whole entire family were police and her godfather was the chief of police but a whole family of doctors? The idea made her very nervous.

"My dad works at a post office," said Holly.

Gail furrowed her brow.

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Over thirty years." Holly turned and flagged down Mary from over at the counter.

"A mailman who married a psychiatrist?" Gail was skeptical. "Is she a public service psychiatrist?"

"More like $200 an hour."

"Wow." Gail nodded in approval. Though that just honestly made it more intimidating. Gail was thankful that Holly didn't seem offended by her confusion. However, she was most thankful for Mary's arrival which changed the subject to food. Food was always a safe topic for Gail.

They spent the rest of the night talking about their classes instead of family. Gail really enjoyed how much Holly seemed to dislike people just as much as she did and they laughed at each other's stories of stupid classmates. Though Holly laughed much louder than her. At some point Gail realized she'd been smiling again for a while without noticing but instead of shaking it off like she normally would she just let herself enjoy it. In that small diner off campus, for the first time in what felt like a very long time, Gail had legitimate fun with another person. And that nagging voice in the back of her head that kept Gail at arm's length away from everyone she met was drowned out by the infectious joy of the woman sitting across from her who made her feel like her skin was aflame.


	4. Chapter 4

Short and sweet. Thank you for all of your comments and words of encouragement. This chapter was quick because I stole a lot of it from a 'one shot' I previously wrote. Hope you enjoy.

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Once a week the Peck family would gather to share a meal. This Saturday it was breakfast. The excuse was to catch up with each other and to keep the family together with tradition but Gail knew it was mostly so Elaine could stick her nose in her brother's life along with her own. The only thing that was different this week was that the focus had been on Gail's hair rather than Steve's latest achievement at work. Her father had smiled at her and told her she looked beautiful no matter what and Steve made fun of her, but Elaine was less than pleased about Gail's hair and she barely accepted her excuse that she had gotten gum stuck in it. So, Gail had gotten an incredibly long lecture on the importance of appearance. Then another lecture on applying herself more at school. Then there was a bonus follow up lecture on rolling her eyes during lectures. And naturally, instead of a hug goodbye after she was dropped off back at campus she was bid farewell with a phrase that she might as well have tattooed on her forehead.

"Always remember who you are, work harder than everyone else, and don't screw up."

Her mother's words continued to echo in the back of her mind as Gail walked along the sidewalk toward the main building of the campus. In front of the building was a large field surrounded by another sidewalk with a stone walkway cutting the field in half. All along the sidewalk and walkway were colorful booths and tables occupied by loud people trying to push their clubs and sports onto the confused freshman passing by them. As she got closer, she swallowed hard and steeled herself for the battlefield she was about to enter. If Elaine Peck wanted Gail to apply herself then apply herself she would even if she had to hate every second of it.

When she headed across the small street and into the storm of people and paper she tried to shrink herself to keep from running into anyone. She really didn't feel like being touched by any of these people. As she snaked her way around the small crowds at the more popular sports tables, a muscular man barreled past Gail with another one running after him. The second guy caught her in the shoulder blade with his bulky arm and knocked her off balance. Before her face could become firmly acquainted with the cement sidewalk, an arm shot out and wrapped around her waist.

"Hey," said an increasingly familiar voice. "Gail, are you okay?"

Gail pushed herself a small distance away from Holly to stop her heart from pounding and patted her clothes back into place while making sure her wallet and phone were still in her pockets. Of course she had to run into Holly of all people after the emotionally draining mindfuck that Peck family meals were. Not that she actually minded but being annoyed at something was an easier emotion to deal with than the way her heart seemed to race whenever she was around her new friend. Not that they were friends or anything or that Gail had even seen Holly much except in passing ever since they hung out at Joe's Diner after Dr. Stein's lecture.

"Forensic Friends?" mused Gail aloud after glancing at the booth behind Holly. "I thought this was college, not an 80's cartoon show."

For half a second, Gail actually regretted her flippant remark. Then Holly's lips curled into the lopsided smile Gail had grown accustomed to and Gail's social panic subsided.

"Well, Justice League is copyrighted so we figured this was a good second place," said Holly. Gail smirked. "Trust me, it's much better than the other choices. We were so low on ideas someone actually pitched 'Let's Hang Out and Talk about Homicide'. Besides, with 'Forensic Friends' the logo is F squared. How could we resist?"

Gail glanced down at the logo on Holly's blue polo shirt. She couldn't help but smile. It was so absolutely nerdy and so absolutely Holly.

"Yeah, Holly you really couldn't miss out on that opportunity," said Gail. "So this is why you know so much about diatoms and dead bodies huh?"

Holly smiled and shrugged. She turned around and grabbed a flyer off of the booth's table and turned back towards Gail.

"I'm guessing it would be too much to ask if you wanted to join?" Holly moved a little closer to Gail and held out the flyer. "I mean, you are going into criminal justice."

"Seems like it's a little more science based than chasing people down and cuffing them," said Gail. She tried to ignore the thundering of her heart beat behind her ribs and just told herself it was the closeness although she made no effort to move away.

"Well, keep it," said Holly as Gail slowly took it from Holly and folded it to fit in her pocket. "Just in case you change your mind. Okay?"

"I doubt it." People made Gail feel dumb enough in her day to day life. She didn't need to be made to feel dumb around Holly to top it off.

"It won't kill you to try something new," said Holly with a smile.

"You don't know that. I could trip and die on my way to my first meeting."

Holly's smile grew as she chuckled and shook her head. Gail always felt infinitely funnier when she was around Holly. It was practically addictive. For a second neither woman moved although Gail shifted her eyes a couple of times to look anywhere but Holly's. Then Holly nodded as if reaching a conclusion with herself and moved away from Gail for a moment before returning with another, different, flyer. A flyer that looked like it was definitely more Gail's speed than a science club.

"In case you want something to do tonight," said Holly. She bit her lip and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "Freshman aren't normally invited though so you have to promise to be cool."

Gail furrowed her brow at Holly and looked from Holly's shirt to the booth and back to her face.

"Holly, I'll probably be the coolest person there."

Holly rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't get wasted okay?" Holly reached up and mussed up Gail's hair playfully and Gail shoved her lightly away. "I don't think you'll look as cute with a buzz cut."

"Well now you've ruined my plans," said Gail. "Is there a dress code? Should I try to hit up the local thrift store? Maybe show up in suspenders and a bow tie? Do people even sell pocket protectors anymore?"

Holly's smile grew and she bit at her bottom lip before shaking her head but she didn't say anything. Gail could feel her chest tighten as she got nervous under the watchful, smiling face of the woman in front of her. However, she'd learned a long time ago how to fake a calm demeanor and to any passing observer she probably seemed more annoyed than on edge. But like always she shook those feelings to the back of her mind. Gail Peck really didn't deal with her feelings.

"Holly, have you seen my chem book?" A short woman with brown hair called at Holly from behind the booth. "I can't find it anywhere."

"It's on the floor next to your feet, Lisa," said Holly without even turning to look at Lisa.

Gail watched as Lisa, very obviously, feigned surprise and exaggerated picking up the book like she had no idea it was down there. The corner of Gail's mouth twitched when she glanced at Holly and saw the previously smiling woman rolling her eyes and sighing. Then she watched as Lisa pulled her heavy text open on the table and tried to look at Holly with the fake innocence of a lying child.

"Holly can you help me with this section? I honestly have no idea what this passage means," asked Lisa.

"Yeah, hold on," sighed Holly before turning back to Gail. The lopsided grin returned. "So, you coming to the party?"

"Sure." If it meant Gail could get drunk off free beer and possibly hang out with the one person she'd gotten along with since starting college she would definitely be attending. "Have fun studying, nerd."

"I guess." Holly rolled her eyes and smiled before heading back toward her friends and their nerdy little science table.

Gail folded the papers Holly gave her and walked off down the stone walkway looking at all the different booths. She had promised her mother that she would try to join at least one social activity. Elaine had tried to get her to agree to a sport but Gail had been adamant that after four years of track she was done. Going for a run every morning was more than a enough for Gail and she never wanted to run up another pair of bleachers ever again. However, as Gail looked over each booth and its inhabitants from a distance she couldn't really see herself joining any of them. The only club that seemed interesting was Forensic Friends but Gail couldn't figure out if it was because of the topic or because of Holly.


	5. Chapter 5

I hope you like it. And as always any and all comments that aren't just requests for updates are so very appreciated. You guys have no idea how much they help me continue to update. Thank you so much. If you ever have any questions though feel free to hit me up on my tumblr.

(I probably won't reread and edit until tomorrow after work so please excuse any errors)

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Update: People asked about Holly's point of view. This is one of the Holly 'chapters' I wrote (it was called chapter 4.5).

Didn't originally plan on posting them but people asked so hey here you go.

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Holly had never been a very social person. That wasn't to say that she was a hermit or anything; people generally liked talking to her and she was more than capable of having fun in social settings. She just preferred being alone and studying. It drove her best friend's Rachel and Lisa crazy because they always wanted to drag her out. So, Gail drunkenly stumbling into her life was definitely the last thing Holly expected. Especially when she considered how low her first impression of Gail had been.

Gail had come off as just another freshman party animal who would slack off and use Dr. Stein's class to sleep off her hangovers, especially when she saw that Gail was the only one in the class who wasn't a science major. It had completely thrown Holly off when Gail was acing quizzes and assignments that others weren't even completing. She had thought Gail was cheating but after weeks of watching her, Holly realized that the other woman was just doing her work. So, when she ran into Gail in that empty bathroom surrounded by chopped off hair she immediately realized that she had no idea what was going on in this girl's life that led her to walking into class smelling like a brewery twice a week. After realizing how judgemental she'd been all she could think about was helping Gail.

After days of talking, texting, and studying, Holly realized that Gail was all she could think about period.

So, it had been a more than pleasant surprise when Gail had run, literally, right into her while she was handing out fliers for the Forensics Friends club. When Gail headed off into the crowd and Holly headed back to the table to help Lisa, Holly had looked up and caught Gail looking back at her for just a quick moment before she was lost from sight. Holly was wondering if that meant anything when she was dragged from her thoughts by Lisa's fingers snapping in front of her face.

"Hello, earth to Holly," said Lisa.

Holly shook her head and focused her attention on her friend in front of her. They were in Lisa's room and Lisa was currently wearing what had to be the fifth outfit she had changed into. Holly was sitting on Lisa's bed with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest.

"What do you think of this one?"

"It looks just as nice as the other ones."

Lisa huffed.

"God, you're practically useless sometimes, Hols."

"Lisa, they're just clothes. Who cares?" Holly let herself fall over onto her side and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She was painfully bored which had recently meant daydreaming about Gail. If there was one aspect of friendship she could do without it was situations like the one she was in. "What does it matter what you wear?"

"Holly, fashion is like its own science," said Lisa.

"I'm a thousand percent offended by that statement." Holly stared blankly at Lisa from over her phone. Lisa rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"Look, we all can't look flawlessly attractive in a baseball jersey and skinny jeans," said Lisa, much more annoyed now. "Some of us actually have to try to seem attractive to others."

Holly wiggled so she could look down at her clothes. She hadn't actually thought about what she was wearing when she left her dorm and headed to Lisa's parents' house. She was, in fact, wearing a Blue Jays' jersey with an a-shirt and skinny jeans. Not once in her life had she ever thought about getting dressed for anyone other than herself but now she found herself wondering what Gail would think of her clothes. Though she was sure Gail would let her know. The blonde certainly didn't shy away from sharing her opinions.

Speaking of what Gail would think about her, Holly had completely forgotten to tell Lisa that she invited her.

"Hey, Lis. I invited Gail," said Holly. She was hoping that Lisa was so invested in picking an outfit that she wouldn't ask questions and would just assume that it was someone from one of their classes whose name she had just forgotten.

"Who's Gail?"

Holly sighed. Of course she couldn't be so lucky.

"That freshman who ran into me at the booth earlier."

Lisa turned and crossed her arms while looking at Holly who refused to meet her gaze and instead pretended to focus on her phone.

"Why? I mean, she's cute. But I don't do freshman."

"I didn't invite her for you," said Holly, rolling her eyes.

"Then please see my previous question."

"I like talking to her. She's funny."

"I'm funny," said Lisa as she turned back to her closet.

"You're hilarious. Sometimes," said Holly with a smile. Lisa stuck her tongue out but didn't turn towards her. "Lisa you know I'm only at this party for you. I could be studying right now."

"Holly, you study all the time. You have the highest GPA of our graduating class. You're valedictorian. And you can literally pick whichever medical school you want out of all of North America." Lisa tossed a pair of pants at Holly. "I think your books can live without you for one night."

"Not true. They've texted me. They miss me. They want me to come home."

"Weirdo," said Lisa with a laugh. "Besides, Holly, maybe you'll meet someone you like and you can have yourself a little stress relief fun before finals. Since I haven't heard two words about you and Shawn."

"Ugh. Please never refer to sex as stress relief ever again," said Holly as she scrunched up her face. "And there is no me and Shawn. He's not...my type."

At this point, Holly knew her type. A little shorter than her, blonde hair, blue eyes, and wit sharper than a knife.

Holly had always wondered if there was something wrong with her. She spent most of high school being surrounded by people dating or hooking up with each other, especially between sports and the science club. But not Holly. The only reason she had a date to prom was because she was the beard for her closeted gay friend, Phil. For the longest time she thought that maybe she was just one of those people who didn't care about romance or sex. Maybe that was just something that would never interest her. Then Gail showed up to that diatom lecture and told her forensics sounded cool and after that everytime she was around her she felt like a hormonal teenage idiot.

Lisa always teased her about not being interested in anyone since Lisa herself was practically interested in every hot girl with a pulse. For some reason she was really nervous about the idea of telling Lisa that she was interested in Gail. Though mostly she just didn't want Lisa jumping up and immediately trying to find her a girlfriend. Not at least before she figured out this thing with Gail because she didn't even have any indication that Gail was interested in women like that. Or her for that matter.

"Why not?"

"I'm just...not? I don't know," said Holly as she rolled onto her back and rested her feet on the wall. "I mean, are you interested in every girl you talk to just because they're cute?"

"Yes. Pretty much. Yeah," said Lisa. She turned and looked at Holly and nodded while buttoning up the shirt she'd finally settled on. Holly raised her eyebrows.

"Even me?"

"Sweetie, who said you were cute?" Lisa walked over and patted Holly on cheek but smiled as she did it.

Holly shoved her hand away and stuck her tongue out.

"I don't see you as a one night stand kind of girl, Hols. So, no. Not you," said Lisa more seriously. As much as Lisa was a jerk most of the time Holly knew she genuinely cared about her. As Lisa reapplied her lipstick the doorbell rang throughout the house. "Welp, guests are here. Time to entertain. Please don't spend your whole night in my room like last time. This is in fact a party, Holly."

Holly rolled her eyes as Lisa headed out of her room and toward the front door. Then her phone buzzed again and she glanced at it to see yet another message from Shawn. She swiped it off her notifications and sighed. As she stared up at the ceiling she got lost in her thoughts. Holly didn't like to party but she knew Gail did. She wondered if Gail was a one night stand kind of girl and then had to force her thoughts to something else so she wouldn't overthink things and make herself sad before the blonde even had a chance to show up. But then Holly's thoughts decided to wonder about what a night with Gail would be like instead which wasn't any better for her mood.

"Fuck," whispered Holly to the ceiling.

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The taxi pulled up to the address on the flier. After Gail paid the driver she took a deep breath before getting out of the car. There was no reason for Gail to be nervous but for some reason she couldn't keep her heart rate steady. She turned back to the taxi and was about to reach for the handle to get back in when the driver pulled away from her, making her decision to stay easier. Gail pulled her scarf up against the cold wind and headed toward the house in front of her. The fact that there was no blaring music or passed out drunk people on the lawn told her this wasn't going to be the parties she was normally invited to attend.

When she reached the door, Gail paused for a moment before finally knocking. No answer. She could finally hear a faint hum of music from inside and so she rang the doorbell. That Lisa woman who pulled Holly away from talking to Gail earlier that day opened the door and her face fell when she recognized Gail.

"She actually invited you," said Lisa. "I was hoping she was kidding."

Gail didn't know what to say and didn't like Lisa's tone so she just held her tongue and nodded.

After a momentary standoff, Lisa stepped slightly the side to let Gail pass.

"Don't break anything. Upstairs is off limits," said Lisa without a hint of hospitality as she shut the door behind Gail.

Lisa left Gail standing by the door as she headed back into the living room. It sounded like that was where the music was playing. The house was nice. Very nice in fact. The way it was sparsely decorated and barely looked lived in it could almost pass as the Peck household. The big difference was the family pictures hanging on all of the walls around the entrance. It was obviously Lisa's parents' house which made Gail feel more nervous than she already did. This Lisa girl obviously didn't like her and there Gail was, left to her own devices in her home.

Just as Gail was thinking about turning around and leaving she spotted Holly coming down the stairs off to the side of the entryway. Holly was wearing a baseball jersey over an a-shirt and her attention was completely taken up by her phone as she descended the stairs.

"Thought the upstairs were off limits?"

Holly looked up from her phone suddenly and smiled brightly when she saw Gail by the door.

"Best friend privilege," said Holly as she shoved her phone in her pocket. "I was just coming down to look for you."

"And what if I'd decided not to come," said Gail with a shrug. "Of all the parties I was invited to this one is definitely the least lively."

Holly laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Let me get your coat," said Holly, holding out her hand.

Gail shrugged her jacket off and pulled her scarf and knit cap off with it and handed them over. After Holly put them all up in a nearby closet she turned back to Gail and immediately smiled while looking at Gail's hair. She tried to hide her smile but Gail had seen it and quickly looked over into a mirror near the door. Her hair was sticking up and she quickly tried to pat it down. Gail had thought hat hair was terrible with long hair but she had been so very wrong.

"Stop, don't," laughed Holly. She walked over and pulled Gail's hands down. "It looks cute."

Gail's heart skipped.

"Ugh. I am not cute," said Gail as she managed to pull one of her hands away and continued to pat her hair down.

When Gail had finally gotten her hair back under control she turned to Holly who was still standing right next to her. Then one corner of Holly's mouth lifted slightly before she bit her bottom lip and reached up to ruffle Gail's hair. As Holly laughed, Gail grumbled and pushed Holly away from her.

"Please tell me there's alcohol at this snoozefest," said Gail, patting her hair back down again.

"Of course."

Holly turned and headed off down a hallway next to the stairs toward the back of the house. Gail followed her and glanced into the living room as she passed. Music was coming out of the really nice speakers in the corner and a couple of people were dancing but the majority of the people in the room were huddled around the television yelling over the people who were playing Super Smash Bros. Gail smirked and shook her head as she continued following Holly. She was definitely at a party full of nerds.

When they reached the kitchen, Holly opened a door and headed down a flight of stairs. If there was ever a moment where Holly was going to reveal herself to be a serial killer that would be it. However, instead of a murder room at the bottom of the stairs there was an entertainment area set up with recliners, couches, and a television that took up most of the wall it was attached to. A couple of people were already down there watching some television show Gail didn't recognize so she just continued to follow Holly passed the miniature movie theater over to what was basically a bar. Holly walked behind the counter and leaned over it.

Gail would be lying if she said her eyes hadn't fluttered downwards from Holly's face for a moment.

"What's your poison?" asked Holly with a smile.

"Margarita. Frozen." It was all Gail could manage at the moment.

Between being invited to a party full of nerds at a house that obviously belonged to people with lots of disposable cash and dealing with whatever her hormones were trying to tell her in regards to Holly, Gail was more than a little overwhelmed. She pulled herself up onto one of the stools at the bar and watched as Holly went about making a batch of margaritas. When the blender kicked in a chorus of groans went up from over by the television.

"Holly! You're drowning out the best part!"

Holly finished with the blender and turned it off.

"Come off it Matt, you've literally seen that episode so many times you know every line," said Holly as she poured some of the mix into two glasses.

"That's not the point and you know it," replied Matt.

Holly moved around the bar and sat down on the stool next to Gail and handed her one of the glasses before drinking from her own.

"Teachers assistant," said Gail as she started ticking things off on her fingers, "resident assistant, captain nerd of a club of nerds, future doctor, and bartender. What else should I be intimidated by?"

Holly smiled but Gail noticed that it was more forced than usual.

"You shouldn't be intimidated by me," said Holly a little softly before shrugging and smiling her usual lopsided smile. "Besides who said I was captain nerd? And all I did was follow the instructions on the back of the margarita mix bottle."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just assumed you were president of your weird little club," said Gail.

"I mean," said Holly sheepishly. "I am. But I definitely never mentioned it."

"How do you have time for everything?"

Holly shrugged and sipped at her drink. Gail knew enough to know that Holly obviously didn't want to talk about her schedule and Gail of all people respected a person's desire not to talk about something. She was actually grateful that Holly had never asked her about the night they met. This was the least she could do in return.

"So, what's the party for?" Gail downed half of her glass and ran her fingers through her hair. She had noticed that ever since it was cut she had a habit of doing that around Holly a lot. She figured it had something to do with the nervous feeling she always had in the pit of her stomach around Holly.

"Lisa got accepted to medical school," said Holly.

"Impressive," said Gail halfheartedly.

Holly just nodded and sipped at her drink.

"So, these are all just your friends?" Gail was pretty sure the last time she was at a party where everyone actually knew each other was her 16th birthday party.

"Hers."

Gail quirked an eyebrow as she downed the rest of her drink.

"I mean, some of them are classmates," said Holly with a shrug. "But they're mostly her friends. I won't lie, Gail, I selfishly invited you to have someone to talk to."

Holly got up and collected Gail's glass and headed back around the bar while Gail just watched her go about refilling Gail's glass and making more margarita. Before Holly moved back around she put the blender pitcher closer to them so she wouldn't have to get up so soon again and moved back to her seat. When Holly's knee knocked into her own, Gail thought about moving but her body didn't budge. Gail glanced over toward the few people watching television and turned back to Holly. She kept her voice lower than the volume of the show.

"I told you I'd be the coolest one here," said Gail as she nudged Holly's arm. Holly laughed and rolled her eyes.

As the night carried on, Gail and Holly spent most of their time at the bar with the main interruptions being people headed over to get drinks of their own. Most of them would stop to talk to Holly for a few minutes but a few just left the two women alone to talk and laugh. Gail told Holly about working as a waitress and how she had to quit because she couldn't handle dealing with people especially the gross men who constantly hit on her. Holly shared horror stories from her lab classes.

It didn't matter to Gail that she didn't understand most of what Holly was talking about when describing the details of the lab experiments. The animated way Holly told the story and the faces she made filled Gail's chest with a warm, light, feeling she knew she couldn't blame on the alcohol. Besides, she understood the basics of stupid people getting hurt for not following directions. Gail also found it really endearing how the more Holly drank the more talkative she became and how she almost never stopped smiling.

As the alcohol pumped through her system, Gail knew she couldn't keep lying to herself about how she was feeling about Holly. When she was sober it was easier to ignore the way her heart skipped or the way her cheeks flushed when Holly got too close or touched her. When she was sober she could keep her eyes from falling to watch Holly's lips move as she spoke. But two glasses down and Gail wanted nothing more than to place her hand on the knee that rested so comfortably against her own. Gail didn't want to think about the reality of what her feelings for Holly meant so she'd leave that for her hangover in the morning.

"Holly! There you are!" Lisa stumbled over to Holly and tossed an arm around her shoulder before pulling Holly closer to kiss her cheek. "Why are you hiding down here?"

If Gail hadn't liked Lisa before that moment she absolutely hated her after. Gail Peck didn't do emotions but that didn't mean that anger and jealousy didn't occasionally stop by to visit whether she liked it or not.

"I wasn't hiding," said Holly.

Lisa walked around the bar and pulled down an expensive potato vodka that Gail had only seen at her Godfather's parties. She poured a shot for herself before pouring two more and pushing them across the bar toward Gail and Holly. She lifted the glass and waited for them to do the same. Holly sighed and lifted hers while Gail halfheartedly raised it a few inches off the bar table.

"To med school."

"Med school," echoed Holly while Gail sort of mumbled the words.

While Gail decided she'd hated Lisa she definitely loved expensive alcohol she'd never been allowed to try before.

"Shawn's upstairs," said Lisa to Holly. "Says he's been texting you all day."

"Lisa, I told you before the party…," started Holly but Lisa cut her off.

"Holly, he's in engineering, he's hot, and he plays baseball," said Lisa, waving her hand around as if for emphasis. Gail thought it just made her look more drunk. "He's like, your dream guy."

Holly glanced at Gail before looking quickly back at Lisa. Gail was fairly certain that Holly didn't expect her to be watching her so closely. But Gail's throat was currently in her stomach which was twisted in a knot and she didn't know what else to do with herself. Gail didn't know who Shawn was but she was pretty sure she liked him about as much as she liked Lisa.

"He's not my dream anything," said Holly. She sounded annoyed and almost angry. "And it's like I told him, we're just not compatible. So, do me a favor Lisa and go upstairs and tell him to fuck off."

"I don't understand what the big deal is," said Lisa.

"I turned him down and he's now making it very clear that he can't take no for an answer and that's not someone I'd ever want to be with even if I was attracted to him."

"Fine," huffed Lisa. "I'll tell him to leave. But don't go asking me to set you up with anyone again. It's hard enough for me to find straight boys who aren't complete geeks."

"I didn't…" called Holly after Lisa but she was already gone back upstairs. Holly turned back to Gail and sighed. "I didn't ask her to set me up with anyone. She gave him my number because she thinks I don't get out enough. I went out with him a handful of times. He might as well be named Narcissus, he's so in love with himself."

Gail tried to force a smile and shook her head like she just didn't get it. Feelings were better when she didn't have any. And it was easier to not have any when she thought she liked men.

"Guys suck," was all she could muster.

Holly's lopsided grin was back in place.

"I can drink to that. I prefer…" Holly paused and downed the rest of the margarita in her drink. Holly swallowed hard while meeting Gail's gaze and the way Holly looked at her made Gail's throat feel like it was made of stone as she tried to drink from her own glass. "...I prefer books."

"Books are okay," said Gail followed by a small cough. Some of her drink felt like it went down the wrong pipe. "Video games are better."

"Video games?" Holly smiled and pushed at Gail's hand on the bar. "Gail Peck, are you secretly a geek? Are all the jokes you make about me being a nerd all just a cover?"

"No. You're a nerd and I'm super cool," said Gail as she managed to get up onto her feet. "Video games and Star Wars are cool now. Maybe you missed the memo."

"You're probably right, I haven't been keeping up with my bi-monthly nerd newsletter."

"Yeah? What's it called. The Nerdzette?"

Holly laughed and managed to climb to her feet but swayed a little from laughing so hard and Gail reached out and held onto her forearm to steady her.

"Where are we going?" asked Holly.

"Well I was going to go upstairs and see if anyone needs their asses handed to them in Smash Bros.," said Gail.

"Oooo, now this I have to see," said Holly.

They headed upstairs and into the living room but Holly stopped and Gail looked over to where her gaze was. There was a guy Gail hadn't noticed before sitting and playing the current round and from the way Holly was looking at him and chewing the inside of her cheek she figured this was Shawn. He wasn't super model hot but he definitely wasn't ugly. He was the kind of guy Gail would probably have ended up flirting with at a party before meeting Holly. He looked up and noticed them when they entered. His eyes rested on Holly for a minute before going back to the game that he was completely losing from not focusing.

"Do you want to leave?"

Holly looked at Gail and shook her head.

"No," said Holly and Gail shot her a skeptical look. "No really. I want to watch you play."

Gail squeezed Holly's arm and pointed at her to sit down in an empty chair far from Shawn. She smiled at her in a way she hoped was comforting and the corner of Holly's mouth lifted slightly. As the game ended Gail walked over and grabbed an abandoned controller and plopped down on the sofa in between two guys who introduced themselves as Tony and Joe. Gail recognized Joe from the Forensics Friends booth.

As the game started Gail got in her zone and while she struggled a little against Tony's Kirby she wiped Joe and Shawn off the board with barely any effort. Years of playing against her brother and his friends now made her feel like a god among mortals. It especially brought her a kind of petty joy to be kicking this Shawn guy's ass so thoroughly across the stage. At some point she actually heard Holly behind her cheering for her when she'd win and it made her smile. As one of the trophy scenes played and everyone talked about the previous round, one of the few that Tony won, Gail shivered as she felt fingers run through her hair from behind. She turned to see that Holly had pulled a chair up to the back of the sofa and was leaning forward against the back.

"So, does this mean I get to call you a geek now?" asked Holly teasingly as she played with the hair at the base of Gail's head.

"No. I told you Holly, video games are cool. For someone so smart you don't listen," said Gail as she turned back to the television set. "Especially Super Smash Brothers. It's a sport."

"An esport."

"The word sport is still in there," said Gail.

"Yeah Holly," said Joe. "It's a sport. You're not the only one who gets to be a cool sports person. You tell her Gail."

"Joe, Gail does not need someone agreeing with her," laughed Holly. "She agrees with herself enough."

Gail smiled. They kept playing and Gail helped Joe win a couple of rounds while Shawn complained about teamwork before trying to do the same with Tony and losing to Gail. She was actually shocked she was still winning because trying to focus while drunk and with Holly playing with her hair felt like playing a game on nightmare mode.

"Joe, did you say Holly's a cool sports person?" asked Gail between rounds.

"Yeah, she plays softball," said Joe.

"Used to," added Holly from behind Gail.

Gail leaned her head back and turned it to look at Holly. She was kind of sad at the loss of Holly's hand on her neck but she was getting tired and holding her head up was way too much work.

"Why'd you stop?"

"School," said Holly. "Also, I prefer baseball."

"That's so cool. I mean, I don't do sports but that's still cool." Gail stared at Holly in amazement. "Stop being so cool."

Holly smiled and shook her head.

"I thought I was a nerd," said Holly.

"Nerds can be cool. It's in the newsletter," said Gail as she turned back to the television.

"I like her," said Joe to Holly before addressing Gail again. "You wanna join our club?"

Holly laughed and patted Joe on the head. Then Matt from downstairs entered the living room and stepped in front of the television. Everyone groaned and Tony threw an empty beer can at him.

"A New Hope starts in 10 minutes in theater number the basement."

"That's not a number," said Joe.

"Whatever," said Matt. "Ten minutes. I'm making all of the popcorn."

Gail got up and tossed the controller into Joe's lap.

"Holly, we have to watch Star Wars. It's law," said Gail.

"The law, huh?"

"I'm a future police officer. I would know the law."

Holly followed Gail toward the basement door but Gail stopped before going down.

"I have to use the bathroom. Grab seats."

Gail hadn't seen a bathroom door downstairs so she figured it had to be one of the ones on the floor she was on. Matt pointed her in the right direction and when she was done she headed back into the kitchen to see if he needed help carrying the popcorn. She mostly wanted to help because she wanted some but he didn't need to know about her ulterior motives.

As they made their way carefully into the basement with arms full of water, bowls, and bags of microwave popcorn, Gail spotted Holly in one of the handful of large recliners. The only other open spaces were Matt's seat and on the sofa with Shawn. Holly was busy furiously texting on her phone and didn't notice Gail until she was next to the recliner. If Gail had to guess, Holly was telling Lisa off for not getting rid of Shawn.

"Oh hey, you can sit here and…"

Holly tried to get up but Gail held her hand in front of her to stop her.

"No stay."

Gail pushed the button on the recliner to extend the foot rest and climbed into the seat with Holly. Without a single word of protest, Holly moved over enough so Gail could sit half next to her and half in her lap. When she was situated, Gail pulled the bowl of popcorn she'd brought them and the waters she had into their laps from off of the floor. With one of Holly's arms wrapped around behind her, Gail's heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest Alien style but Gail wasn't about to let this guy rain on what was otherwise one of the most fun nights she'd had in a very long time. Gail just hoped Holly wasn't forcing herself to stay for her.

"We could leave if you want to," said Gail just low enough for Holly to hear as she opened her water. She turned and looked at Holly who just shook her head.

"That's the last thing I want to do right now," said Holly with a faint smile. "Besides, I'd hate to break the law. And it's been pointed out to me that watching Star Wars is the law."

Watching Star Wars was absolutely the law but Gail was glad that nowhere in that law did it say that she actually had to pay attention. Otherwise she'd have to arrest herself because the way Holly's fingers found their way back into Gail's hair might as well have fried her brain. Gail knew she'd have to actually have to deal with these feelings for Holly at some point. But for one night, she was more than happy to just let herself exist and not pin down the butterflies in her stomach. And as Gail laughed at bad impressions and even worse puns whispered in her ear Gail couldn't have been happier that the taxi had pulled away.


	6. Chapter 6

I think my favorite thing about the comments most of you are leaving is that you guys are picking up on small things that I was hoping people would pick up on but I wasn't sure if maybe I wasn't writing it TOO vaguely. I honestly appreciate comments so much. I hope you guys bear with me as these two dumbies deal with their problems and secretly pine after each other. Love y'all.

"What's up Garbage Pail Gail, you've barely touched your food," said Steve as he kicked Gail from under the table. "That's not like you. Especially when it's food you aren't paying for."

Gail glared at her dumb brother before kicking him back while aiming directly for one of his shins with her boot. She had called him up and told him to take her out to dinner and to Gail's surprise he agreed.

"How's school?" asked Steve as he worked on cutting up his stake.

Gail shrugged.

"It's fine."

"Getting good grades?"

"Would I ever step foot at home if I wasn't?"

"Good point," nodded Steve. "Have you started 'applying' yourself socially?"

His tone was obviously mocking of their mother and Gail fake smiled and rolled her eyes but she didn't actually answer the question. Instead, Gail poked at her pasta and sipped at her coke. Steve must have been using his "brilliant" detective skills while watching her and actually put his utensils down to give her his full attention.

"Seriously though Gail, is everything alright?"

Gail met his gaze and just held it while biting the inside of her lip.

"Oh god, you aren't pregnant are you?"

"Ew. God no," said Gail in disgust.

"So, what's bothering you so much that you'd actually call me?"

"I call you."

"Not often."

"Well you know, your phone makes calls too, Steve."

Steve nodded.

"It does. You're right. We don't call each other. But back to the topic at hand. What's up?"

Gail studied her brother for a moment before sighing and putting her fork down and resting her head back on the seat back of the booth she was sitting in.

"What do you think would be the most disappointing thing either of us could do?"

"You're not becoming a firefighter, Gail," said Steve immediately. "Mostly because I want to be able to still buy the calendar without seeing you in it."

Gail rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious, Steve."

"I mean, I was too," replied Steve with a shrug. "Mom gave you four years but you and I both know she expects you to join the force. Why are you going to come out and say you want to be a florist or something?"

"More like just coming out," muttered Gail mostly to herself but when she saw Steve's eyebrows shoot up she knew he'd heard.

"Coming out of…," asked Steve. "Gail. Are you…?"

"I don't know," snapped Gail. "I mean, I do but I don't. It's...complicated."

Silence fell over the table as both parties just regarded each other and tried to think about what to say next. It had been two weeks since Lisa's party and Gail had been dwelling on her feelings for Holly the entire time. It really didn't help that Holly was her TA because she was fairly certain she spent more time staring at Holly while she graded papers than actually paying attention. If she didn't record Dr. Stein's classes she'd probably end up failing, to be honest. Gail hadn't even had a single drink since the party because she knew she would just be using it as an excuse to not think about everything. She went over a lot in her head and finally settled on telling Steve even if she hadn't really planned out how. It seemed to be the option that was least likely to blow up in her face. Unless he told their parents. But even he wasn't that much of an asshole.

"How do you know? I mean, how did this come up?" asked Steve.

"I met someone."

"You have a girlfriend already!?"

"No you idiot," scoffed Gail. "I just like her."

"Maybe you just really like her as a friend?"

"Yeah, okay. You think about making out with your friends do you?" asked Gail as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "Let me just call up Boyd and let him know."

"Point taken." Steve held up his hands in mock surrender. "Does she know? And are you going to tell mom and dad?"

"No. And more no," said Gail. "That means you can't say anything to them either Steve."

"So, why'd you tell me?"

Gail looked at her brother for a moment before sighing in defeat. It was exhausting keeping up her defenses while simultaneously trying to open up.

"I just felt like I needed to tell someone," said Gail. "And I couldn't think of anyone else who'd actually care. Except her. And I can't tell her."

"Why not?" Steve resumed eating his food while listening. Gail wasn't even mad. She was actually really hungry she just knew she had to talk first or she'd never say anything and just eat and leave.

"She's the first friend I've actually made at school," said Gail. "And despite what mom thinks I don't actually like sending everyone running from me."

Steve nodded but didn't say anything. Gail figured he just didn't know what to say and that was fine with her. Telling him was mostly about getting it off her chest. She wasn't looking for advice on the situation or anything. Steve would actually be one of the last people she asked for advice about anything. Gail loved her brother and she was sure he loved her but they weren't exactly raised in a very supportive house so all of their support for each other was more based on survival in an emotionally negligent household. They were both assholes and they were both disasters. Advice was neither of their strong points.

"Well, I can't help you with any of the coming out stuff," said Steve. "But, if it helps, you're still Garbage Pail Gail to me. No matter who you happen to like."

Gail smiled. Then she kicked him in the shin again. He yelped and rubbed at it under the table.

"That's for being mushy. It was disgusting," said Gail as she picked her fork up and got ready to actually eat the delicious smelling food in front of her.

"I'll keep that in mind next time you need emotional support."

"Good. See that you do."

As they ate their food, Steve talked about work and all the dumb people had arrested that week. Gail wasn't in any hurry to rush off and join the academy but if there was one thing she was looking forward to it was being able to cuff idiots and toss them into a cell. Some of the people her brother would tell her about were just so absolutely stupid and it brought a smile to her face when they got what was coming to them. They finished eating and hung around a little longer just talking. Gail told Steve about the club drive and how the only interesting one was about forensics. She left out the fact that Holly was in it and he naturally told her to just join it. It wasn't like she had to be club president to appease Elaine. She just needed to be social.

When Steve pulled up to her dorm building, he parked the car for a second and looked at Gail.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you care. It's gross. Stop."

Steve laughed and went to wack her arm but she swatted his hand away.

"Oh hey, has mom talked to you yet about Christmas?"

"No," said Gail. "You know I only talk to her on Saturdays if I can help it."

"Well, apparently our parents have been gifted a week long cruise to the caribbean for the holidays," said Steve. "So, we won't be doing anything until they get back."

"Oh," said Gail, a little disappointed. Steve worked all the time so that meant she'd be spending a lot of time at the house alone. With herself. Something she hated. "Okay. Whatever."

Steven patted her arm and smiled at her. She shoved him and got out of the car. As he drove off she tried to block out the uneasy feeling in her stomach. She thought telling someone would make her feel better but it seemed to barely help at all. Or maybe she was actually disappointed about Christmas. Her family wasn't loving or close but she could at least rely on tradition to give her some sort of comfort.

Gail made her way inside the building and passed the front counter. In the elevator, she reached to hit the button for her floor before pausing and hitting the one for the floor under her. She'd never actually been to Holly's room but she knew which number it was. As she looked for the right room, she spotted Shawn walking down the hallway in her direction. They made eye contact for a second before he looked away and kept walking. She turned and watched him head into the elevator before continuing down the hall toward Holly's room. She really didn't like this guy.

A quick knock on Holly's door led followed by silence made Gail wonder if Holly was even there. She looked back down the hallway toward the elevators and wondered if that's why Shawn had been leaving. Maybe she was out somewhere. Gail didn't actually know Holly's schedule other than the fact that she was always busy. She was about to leave when a small voice could be heard on the other side of the door.

"Is it an emergency or can you come back later?"

"I was just passing by," said Gail.

The door opened a bit and Gail's heart broke at the sight of Holly's face. Not only did Holly look exhausted but there were still streaks on her cheeks where tears had obviously fallen.

"Hey."

"I can come back if…"

"No," said Holly quickly before shaking her head slightly. "No. You're fine."

Holly stepped back and let Gail into her room. All the RAs got single dorms so it was smaller than most but had the same basic furniture of bed, desk, dresser, and nightstand. The walls were decorated with a few movie posters and pictures of friends and a large periodic table poster hung above her cluttered desk. Gail moved further in and turned to watch Holly close her door. Holly crossed her arms and offered Gail a weak smile.

"I just didn't want to have to deal with any drama on the floor right now," said Holly as if everything was completely fine. "You'd be amazed at how many petty arguments I have to break up every day. Like, why is it so hard for people to just not touch other people's things? It's not rocket science."

Gail's heart twisted in her chest and her stomach felt like a knot. Normally she'd be more than okay with letting people keep their feelings to themselves and wouldn't pry but this was Holly and it was absolutely killing her that she was obviously hurting. It was honestly taking all of Gail's strength not to run down every flight of stairs to go chase down Shawn and tackle him. She didn't even need specifics.

"What happened?"

"Gail, I'm fine," said Holly. She pulled her glasses off and set them on her desk and tried to wipe away the tear streaks with the sleeves of her jumper.

"No you're not."

Holly let out a weak laugh and shrugged.

"It's nothing," she said. "Shawn didn't really like what I had to say and decided to sling insults instead of acting like an adult. Really Gail, I'm fine. I will be anyways. No permanent damage done. Just hurt feelings. Thanks though."

Gail studied Holly for a moment then decided there wasn't much she could do but accept what she said. However nothing could prepare Gail for when Holly walked over and pulled her into a hug. Gail didn't do hugs. It wasn't how she communicated. But it was Holly. And the way Holly's arms wrapped around Gail had her following suit and returning the gesture. When Holly finally pulled away she just smiled and moved to her bed to sit at the headboard and lean against the wall. Gail hoped that the hug hadn't been long enough for Holly to feel the way Gail's heart had pounded in her chest.

"What have you been up to? You look like you've been out."

It took Gail a moment to process Holly's question. She shook her head a little to clear her thoughts and sit down in Holly's empty desk chair.

"I went out with my brother."

"You have a brother?" Holly tilted her head to one side. It was a quirk that Gail loved. Just like Holly's lopsided grin.

"Yeah," said Gail. "I actually can't believe I haven't mentioned him."

"You don't talk about your family much," offered Holly.

"Yeah but I actually like Steve." Gail pulled off her jacket and let it hang on the back of the chair behind her. "Do you have any siblings?"

"Two. April and Mark," said Holly. She pointed to a picture hanging on the wall just below her period table. It was of Holly with two people who looked really similar to her making faces at the camera with Niagra Falls behind them. "They're both older than me."

"We're both the youngest," pointed out Gail. For the first time she wasn't actually sure how to continue this conversation with Holly. Gail wasn't good with talking about her family. Even Steve. "He's kind of obnoxious about it."

"Really? How so?" Holly pulled her knees up to her chest as if she was getting more comfortable for storytime. Gail tried to not focus on the way Holly's shorts pulled up her tan, toned legs. She obviously failed.

"He just loves picking on me," said Gail. "And reminding me how annoying I was to take care of when I was younger. Apparently, I took up a lot of the time he could have been using to chase girls."

Holly laughed and Gail melted on the inside. After seeing Holly so upset she was glad she could make her laugh even if it was small and about something stupid. But Gail didn't really want to keep talking about Steve because it just made her think about her conversation with him.

"What did you do today?" asked Gail, trying to steer the conversation focus to Holly.

"Studied," said Holly with a shrug. "Helped a girl whose roommate stole her yogurt. You know, really important and life altering stuff."

Gail smiled.

For a moment neither girl said anything and just studied each other while smiling. Though, after a moment Gail had to look down and pretend like her shoes were suddenly super interesting because the butterflies that permanently resided in her stomach because of Holly couldn't handle keeping eye contact that long. Even though Holly's face was less red and the tears were gone she still looked so tired. Gail started to feel bad she was taking up the time Holly could have been spending sleeping. She was about to excuse herself when Holly spoke up.

"Do you want to watch a movie? I finished studying for the day. I was just about to relax when...yeah." Holly let out a small dry laugh. She obviously meant when Shawn was there. Gail made a mental note to deal with him the next time she saw him.

"Uh. Sure."

Holly pulled her laptop off her nightstand and patted the bed next to her. Gail kicked off her shoes and took up the space right next to Holly. She tried to leave a little space but Holly scooted closer, leaving their sides pressed together and the laptop resting between them, one leg each being used as a makeshift table.

"Young Frankenstein, Goonies, or Best in Show?"

"Oh well, if those are the only choices then I'll just…" Gail smiled and pretended to get up but Holly pulled her back down while laughing.

"Shut up and pick one," said Holly still smiling.

"Goonies," said Gail, thinking back to the tank top Holly was wearing when they first met that night in the bathroom.

"Good choice."

As they sat squeezed together at the head of Holly's twin bed, Gail couldn't help but think about what Shawn had said to make Holly cry. She also couldn't help but notice how the only part of Holly's room that really looked lived in was her desk. It was like Holly lived at it. As she wondered how much time Holly actually spent studying, the pressure on her side grew heavier and Gail looked over to see Holly had fallen asleep against her. Holly's head rested on Gail's shoulder and her mouth fell open as her breathing slowed. Gail couldn't help but smile at how cute Holly looked. Carefully, she pulled the blanket at the end of the bed over the both of them and moved the laptop just into her lap.

Goonies ended and Holly stirred but only enough to move into a more comfortable position. Not wanting to wake her, Gail hit play on Young Frankenstein and got comfortable knowing she wouldn't be moving anytime soon. She thought about what it mean to talk to Holly to about how she was feeling but with everything else that was obviously on the other woman's plate Gail didn't want to burden her with something as unimportant as a crush. Even though they'd only known each other for a month or so, Gail knew she'd do almost anything for Holly. Even if it meant it left her silently dealing with emotions she'd never even had to bother with before. Anything.


	7. Chapter 7

As always, thank you for reading and comments are very much loved and appreciated. Love y'all.

Oh and this is the warning for me using a slur for lesbians once. Some people don't care about the word. Some people have reclaimed it. But here it's used as a slur so I just wanted to give a heads up because I don't want it to be an abrupt thing.

* * *

Finals were finally over for Gail and she couldn't have been happier. The past week had been the most stressful experience of her life and all she wanted to do was sleep for a week straight to make up for it. The fact that she'd barely gotten to spend any time with Holly didn't help her mood at all. She'd stopped by Holly's a couple of times but they mostly just studied together. It didn't bother Gail or anything how focused Holly was when she studied because she was the same way but she definitely missed talking and laughing a lot more.

However, Holly had one more final left and she was locked in her room sitting at her desk, face first in a book with color coded notes surrounding her and Gail didn't want to bother her. The last thing she needed was to be an obnoxious distraction. So, Gail's plan was to go to a Finished Finals party that her classmate Chloe told her about and drink until she didn't miss being around Holly as much.

Even though it was the early evening the house was already pretty packed and Gail recognized a few of the faces from her Intro to Criminal Justice class as she pushed her way toward the kitchen.

"Gail!"

Chloe threw her arms around Gail and Gail immediately tried to pry her away from her. Chloe was the kind of girl that was just too personal with everyone before even knowing them. She was nice but she was way too bubbly for Gail. The frank openness that seemed to come so naturally to the other girl just rubbed Gail the wrong way. It probably had something to do with how closed off Gail was but she was just going to pretend it was because no one should be that happy all the time.

"I was just talking about you. You know Joe?" said Chloe.

Gail looked to the guy standing next to Chloe that she hadn't noticed before and saw a familiar, though much less drunk, face.

"Hey, Joe," said Gail with a small wave.

"How's it going Gail? Do you like beer?" Joe held out a bottle and Gail graciously took it. She popped it open on the countertop next to them and took a large drink from it.

"Wow, teach me how to do that!" said Chloe, still much too close to Gail for her liking but she figured she just needed to drink faster so she wouldn't care.

Chloe pulled out another beer from the cooler on the counter and handed it to Gail. She ended up spending the next 10 minutes teaching Chloe how to pop a beer bottle open on the counter without breaking the lip. Thankfully for the beer it only took three tries to get it right. Joe tried too and managed to get it in one. On the plus side, Gail had a couple of already open beers to down the second the previous one was empty.

As Chloe was excitedly showing the trick to another person who had walked up and started watching them, Gail took a look around the kitchen. Over in the corner of the attached dining room, she spotted a small group huddled around a serving table and taking turns leaning over it and popping back up rubbing their noses. Before Gail could get a closer look, however, her view became obstructed by the sight of a lime green polo shirt. Looking up, Gail was greeted to the smug, punchable, face of Shawn.

"Who invited you?"

Gail didn't say anything. Instead she just narrowed her eyes and finished the rest of her beer before tossing it in the trash next to him and turning around back towards Joe and Chloe to grab another bottle. Shawn moved around her so he was in front of her again but when he tried to reach for her Gail quickly raised her other hand to go to block him. He stopped before he actually reached her since he'd gotten her attention like he'd wanted.

"I said, who invited you?"

"You really can't tell when women want nothing to do with you, huh?" asked Gail as she pulled the bottle to her lips. "That's a problem you should really work on."

"Hey Shawn, don't be a dick," said Joe. He pulled at Shawn's arm as if to try to get him to turn away from Gail but Shawn shrugged him off.

"This party is off limits to people like you," said Shawn, getting uncomfortably close to Gail's face.

"Too bad, if you kick everyone out with common sense then you're going to end up with a very sad party of one," said Gail.

"Get out," said Shawn in what Gail assumed was supposed to be a threatening tone. To Gail he just seemed like a child throwing a tantrum. "You and that dyke can just stay the fuck…"

"Excuse me?" Chloe shoved her way in between Shawn and Gail. "You did not just say that."

It was actually a good thing that Chloe injected herself into the conversation because the second that foul word fell from his lips Gail had been two seconds from breaking the bottle in her hand over Shawn's head.

"Get the hell out of my way Chloe, this has nothing to do with you."

Chloe was arguing with Shawn who was still staring down Gail but it didn't matter. Gail wasn't listening. She was seething with rage and glaring right back at him not breaking eye contact for a second. As she tried to calm herself down her other senses came back to her and Gail had a better way of dealing with this asshole than physical harm.

"So, this is your house is it?" asked Gail. She was sure to talk over Chloe so Shawn would hear her.

"Yes and you need to get out."

"No problem," said Gail. "You've got shit beer anyways. Consider getting an import next time you cheepass."

With that, Gail turned and pushed her way back to the front door. It was a little harder because of all the people that had crowded the kitchen when they heard yelling but she managed to make it back out into the cold night air. As she pulled the zipper on her jacket back up and pulled her hat out of her pocket, Chloe stumbled out after her followed by Joe. Gail glanced back at them.

"That was really fucked up of him," said Joe. "I'm sorry Gail."

"I can't believe him. What the hell is his problem with you," asked Chloe.

"It's not me," said Gail. "But don't worry about it. You two should leave though."

"What, why?" Chloe wrapped her arms around herself and walked into Gail's field of view to get her attention. "I mean, I definitely wasn't going to hang out after that but what are you going to do? You aren't going to try to burn down the house are you?"

"What? No. Why would I do that? Why would you even think of that?" Gail looked at Chloe like she was insane while she pulled her phone out and hit call on the phone icon under her brother's picture.

"What's up Pale Gail? I'm at work," said Steve.

"I know," replied Gail while walking a little further away from Joe and Chloe who just watched her. "Hey, are you guys swamped? How are your numbers looking this month?"

Steve laughed over the line.

"Why?"

"I've got a loud house party involving drug use if you're interested," said Gail. She glanced over at Joe and Chloe who just looked at her questioningly.

As she hung up the phone, Joe was about to speak when Gail cut him off with a raise of her hand.

"Police are on their way. Probably 5 minutes out. You two might want to grab your stuff," said Gail.

Chloe and Joe immediately looked at each other and then rushed back into the house. Sure enough, not even a minute after they met Gail back outside and across the street from the house but two squad cars with their lights going pulled up to the front of the house. As the party goers realized what was happening, panicked partiers started to try and scatter to get away. Though a lot of people just put their beers down and put their hands up. Gail figured those were the people who were probably just there for a good time. She felt bad for them but it wasn't like they were going to be in any trouble if they weren't doing anything wrong.

"How did you get them here so fast?" asked Chloe. She was in a state of awe. Especially when a wagon pulled up a few moments later with a couple more officers getting out.

"When your whole family is in the force, it's actually pretty easy," said Gail without taking her eyes off the front door.

Gail watched as Steve exited the house with two cuffed people. The guy was crying while the girl was yelling so loud Gail could make out every word even from the other side of the street. Steve spotted Gail and smirked. She waved. He'd obviously found what he needed so she certainly wasn't going to stay. Just the knowledge that Shawn's party was completely ruined was all Gail needed. Even if he managed to convince everyone that he didn't know what was happening at his party the fact that it was his house meant that he, or his parents, would be dealing with a huge inconvenience.

Maybe it was a little petty to get his entire party shut down by the police simply for calling her friend a slur but Gail was good at being petty and she didn't want to let herself down.

"Really? My godfather is an officer. I'm actually going to join after I graduate," said Chloe excitedly before looking back at the party. "Isn't this kind of an abuse of power though?"

"Privilege maybe," said Gail as she started walking down the street back toward the school. "Illegal things were happening. I called it in. I just didn't have to go through dispatch and my brother immediately believed me."

Joe and Chloe tagged along after Gail. She didn't really mind thought she could do without Chloe's near constant talking. Thankfully Joe mostly answered her and they held their own conversation. When they reached the campus outskirts, Joe and Chloe thankfully decided to go their own way by the school cafe for something to eat and Gail continued on toward the dorms.

Gail had a feeling that what Shawn called Holly back at his house was at least one of the "insults" that Holly had mentioned that day Gail had seen him leaving Holly's room. Now that she was away from everything and everyone and she had calmed down she started to wonder if it meant anything other than him being a huge piece of shit. Was Holly actually gay or was Shawn just the kind of sexist piece of shit that used every hurtful word he could think of to shame and demean the women around him. Part of Gail really hoped for the former but was pretty sure it was the latter. Though, even if Holly were a lesbian, it definitely didn't mean she ever deserved to have that kind of hatred directed towards her. Holly was just a sweet, weird nerd who spent most of her time studying and talking about weird, nerdy things.

As Gail stepped into the elevator of her dorm she stared at the buttons for a minute before someone else finally stepped into it with her and happened to hit Holly's floor. Taking it as a sign, Gail just let the elevator go. When they reached the right floor, Gail's elevator companion went off in the opposite direction as Gail headed down toward Holly's room. The door was open, something Holly usually did when she didn't mind the girls on the floor coming to her, and Gail could hear voices inside.

"I am so sorry Hols."

"Lisa, really it's fine. I promise."

"If I had known you were struggling I wouldn't have given him your number. I wish you had told me."

For the first time since meeting her, Gail actually thought Lisa sounded like a normal caring person. Granted she'd really only talked to her a few times in passing since the party. When Gail walked into the frame of the doorway and knocked, Holly jumped a little before a huge smile spread across her face. Lisa pursed her lips and just kind of stared at her.

"Don't you have a bottle to go drown in?" asked Lisa with a fake smile.

"Don't you have a crypt you should be keeping?" replied Gail.

Holly snorted and tried to bury her face in a book at her desk but Lisa had definitely heard.

"Wow, Holly, really?" Lisa actually smiled a little but hit Holly's shoulder as she walked passed her. "Yeah okay, whatever. I have some place I need to be anyways. Don't distract her. If she doesn't get enough studying time in she becomes a panicky wreck and usually ends up throwing up."

"If I had any air of mystery going for me, it's all gone now. Thank you, Lisa."

"Come off it, Holly," said Lisa as she passed. "I love you. You're my favorite. But there was no air of mystery. You've tricked no one into thinking you're cool."

If Gail hadn't seen them interact on multiple occasions by this point she'd honestly think Lisa was the meanest friend on the planet. But as Holly laughed and rolled her eyes Gail knew it was just another thing Lisa did that she didn't understand. She was fairly certain she'd never understand why someone as nice as Holly was friends with someone like Lisa. Then again she wasn't entirely sure why Holly was friends with her. She could be just as mean and bitchy as Lisa. Hell, she literally just wrecked an entire house party because a dickhead called her friend a rude word.

Holly smiled at Gail before going back to reading over the notes she had in front of her and Gail just kicked off her shoes and took off her jacket and made herself comfortable on the bed.

"I think you're cool," said Gail finally after failing to think of anything better to say.

Holly turned and studied Gail's face for a minute before the one corner of her mouth went up in that way that always made Gail's heart melt.

"That's sweet. But I'm not cool," said Holly.

"Being cool is like art," said Gail. One of Holly's eyebrows twitched upwards. "It's subjective. Like modern art. A lot of people think it's trash but someone out there likes it."

"You're insane," said Holly but Gail couldn't help but notice how Holly couldn't stop smiling.

"Eh, sanity is subjective too."

Holly tilted her head to the side and turned more in her chair to face Gail.

"Actually I think that's a little more objective."

"Says who? Doctors. Pffft. What do they know?" Gail barely tried to hide her smile as she teased Holly.

For a minute Holly just smiled at Gail then she shook her head as if she was pulling herself out of her thoughts and looked back up.

"How was your last final? Are you happy to be done?"

"It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be," said Gail. "I'm glad to be done with tests but not really looking forward to winter break."

"Why not?" Holly shifted her weight and crossed one leg over the other and Gail tried hard to not look longer than a casual glance. If there was one thing that Holly could do to help Gail keep her hormones in check it would be to wear sweatpants instead of very small shorts when in her room.

"My parents are going on a cruise and Steve works all the time so I'm mostly just going to be at home by myself," said Gail as she picked at the hem of her shirt. "So, I'll just be playing a lot of video games."

"That sounds awful."

"It's whatever," said Gail with a shrug. "Hey, do you like Chinese? I haven't eaten dinner yet and I'm starving."

"How do you eat the way you do and stay looking so amazing?" The way Holly looked Gail up and down for a second made Gail's cheeks feel like they were on fire. She had tried so hard to change the subject yet it seemed to just end up on a worse one.

"I run," said Gail as she tried to busy herself with her phone. "I did track in high school."

Gail decided to leave out the part about being chubby when she was younger and how her mother hired a personal trainer to get her in shape so she had gotten used to using working out as a means to get away from her parents. She had also started running a lot more since accepting her crush on Holly because it was the easiest way to release all her built up tension and stress without feeling like a terrible creep. Not that there hadn't been moments of weakness.

"I had no idea. When do you run? I run every morning. Well, when I'm not busy," said Holly.

This explained her legs, thought Gail.

"Usually in the afternoon when it's warmer."

"You run outside? In the winter?" Holly's jaw dropped.

"Yes?"

"Wow, that's dedication," said Holly still in awe. "I've been running at the gym. We should go running together. When it's warmer."

Holly laughed and Gail smiled. She was always secretly waiting for Holly to be done hanging out with her and then Holly would come out of nowhere and make plans or make plans to make plans. It was really comforting and probably something Holly didn't think anything about. At least not as much as Gail thought about it.

"Oh, but as to your question about food, yes I do like Chinese."

Gail nodded and pulled up the number of the place she always ordered from. After they ordered, Holly went back to studying while Gail played on Holly's laptop. She had discovered a huge library of games and decided to go through the ones that didn't suck with a laptop trackpad. She tried to ignore the feeling that she was bothering Holly since just by looking at her she could tell that Holly was studying just fine though she would occasionally look back at Gail. They hung out for the rest of the night though neither of them really spoke much. There was something about being in Holly company that just made Gail feel better. There was definitely nervousness and anxiety but for the most part it just felt better to be with Holly than anywhere else. So, Gail was kind of glad that the party had been a bust. She'd rather be with Holly than drunk with strangers.

Though, as she secretly watched Holly for the umpteenth time that night and her eyes fell to Holly's lips as she whispered her notes back to herself, Gail wished she could be with Holly in a much different way.


	8. Chapter 8

I hope you all enjoy the update. Thank you so much for all your comments and support. This is also up on Ao3 now if anyone likes that site better. I personally find them equally frustrating just about different things. Haha. Let me know what you think. Gotta go to work now.

* * *

It was the day before the school was closed for winter break and Gail was sprawled out on Holly's bed watching the ceiling fan spin around. She had offered to help Holly load all her stuff up in her vehicle as an excuse to spend more time with her and so far she thought she was doing an excellent job of not actually helping. Holly had done most of the lifting while Gail had mostly just helped pack everything up. She had finished the last of Holly's loose desk items while Holly was still downstairs loading up the last of what she'd brought down.

Holly's mood had shifted dramatically since finishing her last final. She was happy and smiling again and didn't look like she was two seconds from passing out where she stood. Gail didn't realize what an effect this had been having on her until she felt the tight grip around her heart relax. She was just happy that Holly was happy again. And sleeping. Also eating.

"Hey Hols," said Lisa as she knocked on the open door. When she spotted Gail she crossed her arms across her chest and leaned against the wall. "Oh, it's you."

"Lisa, we really have to stop meeting like this," said Gail without moving to get up. "Or in general."

Before Lisa could come up with her own retort, Holly walked in a little out of breath. Gail figured she probably saw Lisa walking toward her room and ran to catch up so that Gail and Lisa would have as little time as possible to say smartass things to each other. For a second, Gail wondered if it was hard on Holly to have to deal with them as friends.

"Hey. Lisa. What's up?"

"Wanted to stop by before you left," said Lisa. "Also, wanted to ask if you heard about Shawn's party?"

"Joe told me," said Holly. Gail sat up. "He said a bunch of people were doing drugs out in the open so someone called the police."

"Yeah, someone sure did," said Lisa as she looked at Gail. Holly followed her gaze and looked over at Gail with a puzzled look on her face.

"Who me?" Gail was bad at acting innocent but she was sure going to try. She was actually amazed that Joe hadn't ratted her out when telling Holly. Though he probably just didn't want to repeat what Shawn had said about her.

"Well, people have been posting about it and apparently the arresting officer was a Steve Peck."

"My brother is a police officer and police sometimes do their jobs." said Gail with a shrug.

Holly and Lisa both just stared at Gail with skeptical looks on their faces. Gail rolled her eyes and sighed.

"He was being a prick and people were doing drugs. I called my brother. Whatever."

"Why didn't you tell me?" The fact that Holly actually looked a little hurt struck a chord in Gail's chest.

"Because," said Gail as she tried to plan her words. "You were busy studying and I didn't want you to have to worry about some jerk who lets kids do coke off what I'm sure was an antique serving table. Probably his dead grandmothers. He seems like the kind of guy who'd desecrate things."

"What did he say?" asked Lisa.

Gail wasn't entirely sure why she was getting the third degree about a busted up party but she honestly wasn't a huge fan of it.

"He told me to leave because he's seen me hanging out with Holly," said Gail with a shrug.

"That's all?" Lisa was staring Gail down while Holly had sat down on the edge of her bed and was staring at the floor. The look on Holly's face was breaking Gail's heart. She could honestly not care less about whatever Lisa's problem was.

"He was rude about it but yeah that was pretty much it," said Gail. "Like I said. He was a prick. People were doing drugs. I called the cops. I didn't do anything wrong."

"You didn't," said Lisa. "But he might."

"I'm not scared of some asshole," said Gail.

"Maybe you should be," said Lisa. "His father is a lawyer and he's obviously a piece of shit."

"And my godfather is the chief of police," said Gail. That wasn't something she tended to use to one up people but she really wasn't liking Lisa's tone. "He's not the only one with connections."

"And what about Holly?"

Gail looked at Holly who was just staring at her desk and looked like she'd rather be anywhere other than in that room.

"You didn't really think about that did you?"

Gail squared her jaw and glared up at Lisa. She couldn't even say anything in response because Lisa was absolutely right. She hadn't thought about how any of it could possibly affect Holly. What if Shawn sent his goonish friends to harass her? What if he harassed her? What if he was some deranged psychopath? But what else was she supposed to do? Just let Shawn keep harassing people? Just ignore the blatant drug use? That wasn't who Gail was.

Gail got to her feet because she was tired of feeling like she was being talked down to and she stared Lisa down.

"You know what, I'm sorry but after what he called her to my face I don't feel bad," said Gail. Both Lisa and Holly looked at each other before looking back at Gail. "So, yeah you're right I didn't really think about how this might come back to Holly but I honestly wasn't thinking much beyond smashing my beer bottle into his face. If that means I have to deal with the aftermath to make sure Holly's safe then I'll deal with it. But don't, for a second, think I wouldn't do it again."

"What did he call me?" asked Holly. She was still staring at her desk.

"I'm not repeating it," said Gail.

Holly nodded.

"Look," said Lisa, her tone was much calmer now. "The shithead deserved what he got. I just don't want anything coming back to Holly. You made this bed so you better lie in it if it comes down to it."

"You think I wouldn't?" asked Gail. "You're not the only one who cares about Holly."

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that because of me," said Holly. Her voice was quiet. Gail had never really felt inclined to hug someone before that moment but all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around Holly.

"You didn't do anything wrong," said Gail. She sat down next to Holly and hesitated before lightly resting her hand on top of Holly's.

"It sure feels that way," said Holly.

"Well you didn't," said Lisa rather abruptly as she leaned on Holly's desk. "I'm sorry I ever gave him your number."

"Yeah, see this is all Lisa's fault," said Gail in her usual teasing manner hoping Holly would take the bait. "We should all hate Lisa."

Holly rolled her eyes as she tried not to crack a smile.

"That's fine. I'll be just over here feeling like a terrible person," said Lisa but Gail could see a small smile on the corners of her lips. Gail still didn't like Lisa but maybe she wasn't as terrible a person as she originally thought.

"I'm not going to hate Lisa," said Holly.

"Bummer," said Gail.

Much to Gail's displeasure, Lisa ended up hanging out for awhile. She decided to tell them, well mostly Holly, all about her glorious winter break plans. Something about skiing and sleeping with attractive women who also ski. Gail honestly didn't understand how such a stuck up person managed to get laid all the time and then she remembered that she herself never actually had a problem in that department either. Before she met Holly anyways. However, thinking about that just made her think back to the night they met and she pushed that back out of her thoughts. Instead she focused on the side of Holly's face as she talked to Lisa. Normally she wouldn't be able to watch the way the corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled and she never realized how often Holly actually had to push her glasses back up. Those were much more pleasant thoughts.

Lisa's phone went off and she stood as she checked it.

"Alright, well my mom is actually headed home now so I'm going to go. I need to finish packing," said Lisa. "

Holly got up to hug Lisa goodbye.

"Try not to break too many hearts," said Holly.

"Just headboards," said Lisa with a huge smile.

Gail watched Holly roll her eyes as she turned back towards her. Then Holly just stood next to her desk and watched her for a moment. It made Gail want to squirm.

"Did you call the cops because of what he said or because of the drugs?" asked Holly.

"I don't care if idiots want to shove powder up their nose for fun. The drugs only gave me probable cause to actually break up the party," said Gail. "Otherwise the cops would have just showed up and told them to keep it down."

"So, you broke up an entire house party because a boy called me names?"

"I mean, when you say it like that it sounds way less cool," said Gail.

Holly nodded and pushed her glasses up her nose to try and hide her smile.

"Still sounds pretty cool to me," said Holly.

Gail shrugged and ran her fingers through her hair. She hoped her face didn't look as red as it felt. If this was how boys always felt around girls then she completely understood why men were idiots for women. When Gail looked back over at Holly she was nervously biting at her bottom lip and looking at a spot on the carpet.

"What's up?" asked Gail.

"What?" asked Holly as she snapped her attention up to Gail.

"I was asking you 'what's up'?" said Gail.

"Oh," said Holly. She still didn't answer Gail's question however.

"Holly, is everything okay? Are you honestly worried about Shawn because…"

Holly waved her hand in front of her to cut Gail off as she shook her head.

"No. I mean kind of but that's not what I'm…I was just...," stammered Holly before letting out a long breath. "What are you doing for the holidays?"

"We already talked about this," said Gail with a small smile. "I'm playing video games and eating junk food while my parents go tanning in the caribbean sun."

"Do you want to spend the holidays with me? I mean, my family. Not just me. They'll be there, too," said Holly. "My mom, dad, brother, sister, and our two dogs. I'm sure my sister's fiance will there too at some point but he's really nice. I told my parents about how you were spending the holidays by yourself and they said I could invite you if I wanted to..."

Gail had never seen Holly so nervous before and it was honestly the most endearing thing she'd ever seen in her entire life. Even with everything going on around her Holly had always seemed so cool and put together. Now she was stammering and going on about how her sister's fiance was in a cover band for something. The thought of spending Christmas with Holly rather than spending it alone at home was also incredibly enticing. Especially since Steve had his own place this year so he wouldn't even be at home when he was off work.

"Yeah. Sure," said Gail with a shrug. Realizing how uninterested that made her sound especially when Holly actually stopped talking to look at her. "I mean, that sounds great."

The smile on Holly's face made any conversation she had to have with her brother about ditching him for Christmas completely worth it.

"I don't have anything packed though. I sort of just threw all my stuff in bags when I dropped it all off at my house."

"Oh, we can stop by your place. I mean, if you're cool with leaving today," said Holly. It seemed like Holly was about to ramble again so Gail cut her off. "I'm totally okay with coming back and getting you or you driving out later."

"That's fine."

Holly just kind of looked at her with a dumb, heart melting smile before Gail realized that Holly's dorm room was empty so she was actually ready to go. So, not wanting to hold anything up, Gail got up and put her jacket and hat on. This seemed to snap Holly out of her own thoughts because she followed suit. As they headed out to the parking lot Gail seemed to find herself keenly aware of the fact that she just agree to go somewhere completely out of her comfort zone for the simple idea of spending more time with Holly. Because Gail wouldn't have minded being alone for the holidays. However, she would have cared a lot about not being able to see Holly for a few weeks.

So, Gail was about to be trapped somewhere she didn't know with people she didn't know just to not be away from someone. And in that moment she felt bad for every guy she ever tricked into doing something they might not have wanted to do just to spend time with her. Not just because it didn't work out for them but also because now she knew how disorienting it was to realize that you'd just agreed to do something you otherwise wouldn't have. But with how excited Holly was, Gail knew she'd probably do it again. And again. And not regret it a single time.

Gail knew she would probably try anything for Holly. It was a terrifying feeling. Liking someone so much. But Gail wouldn't trade it for all the ski trips or cruises in the world.


	9. Chapter 9

I drew something for "Different". I'm going to update the story with the art and it will be on my tumblr. I hope you all like the chapter. Thank you so much for your comments. You guys are all so funny and I love reading each and every comment. Also, Matiky, I might steal the Grinch idea. Not gonna lie. Haha.

* * *

Holly took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she ran her hands along the steering wheel in an effort to try and focus on anything other than her racing heart. She had only been waiting in Gail's driveway for around ten minutes but the longer she waited the more anxious she got. After her parents had mentioned inviting Gail over for the holidays she had been giving herself an almost never ending pep talk to get herself to actually ask. Waiting in Gail's driveway made it all sink in that Gail had actually said yes and that she was actually going to get to spend the holidays with Gail. Though, it did also mean that Gail was going to be meeting her family. Her very weird and sometimes incredibly embarrassing family.

"Oh god, what have I done?" whispered Holly to herself as she smacked her head into the steering wheel.

It only just dawned on Holly that she was about to cart Gail off to a lion's den of "positive energy" and "hug therapy". Gail, the most closed off and guarded person she'd ever met in her life was about to be introduced to Patricia Stewart and Holly wished she had thought about how disastrous that could be before she'd asked. She probably still would have asked since she didn't really want to spend the holiday away from Gail knowing that she'd be alone at her home. Or really at all because even if Gail was spending the holiday with her own family Holly would still want to see her.

Holly couldn't believe Gail was real and was really in her life. Underneath all the thorns, Gail was one of the most interesting and amazing people she'd ever met. She still couldn't believe that Gail broke up an entire party just because Shawn said some mean things about her. And she couldn't bring herself to ask Gail anymore about it because Gail was very adamant about not wanting to repeat what he said which gave off the air of not wanting to talk about it. Though Holly was fairly certain she knew what he had called her and she wondered what Gail thought about Holly being a lesbian.

Holly was pulled from her thoughts when two quick knocks on the passenger side window made her jump. She quickly fumbled to unlock her backseat and watched as Gail pushed a travel case and backpack next to all the stuff from her room. Then Gail hopped in the front seat and smirked.

"Did I scare you?"

"I was just thinking," said Holly as she hooked her phone up to the stereo.

"About?"

"Which indie band to make you listen to first."

Holly smiled when she saw Gail's face scrunch up in disgust out of the corners of her eyes. So, when Holly set her phone down and worked on backing out of the driveway she had to stop herself from laughing too hard when Gail realized pop music was playing and not some soulful acoustic piece. Gail immediately turned up the volume and started singing along to the song.

* * *

"We're here."

Gail woke with a start and looked around her. Holly's hand was gently resting on her upper arm and it dawned on Gail that she had fallen asleep. She tried to casually wipe her mouth on the sleeve of her jacket as if she wasn't just drooling but even if Holly saw she didn't say anything she just smiled at Gail and squeezed her arm.

"Good morning."

"Ha ha," said Gail dryly while pulling out her phone and looking at it. It was a little passed seven in the evening.

As Holly got out of the vehicle, Gail tried to gain a bearing on her surroundings. They were parked in a long gravel driveway that led up to a large two story house that years of HGTV had taught Gail was in a prairie style. It had colorful lights decorating the outside and a tree in the front yard decorated like a Christmas tree. Gail couldn't see much in the dark but she could pick out other houses covered in Christmas lights down the road so it was obvious that the houses in the area were a good distance apart. Not very far but also not right on top of each other like in a suburb.

Gail stared at Holly's house. It looked so warm and inviting but she figured she was just imagining that based off of knowing Holly and what little she had said about her family and how close they all were with each other. When Gail's door opened to a smiling Holly she just blinked at her while still trying to wake her brain up from passing out during the ride.

"So, is this where you finally murder me?"

Holly's smile grew.

"Why ruin the surprise?"

"You could have told me you live out in the middle of nowhere," said Gail as she unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out next to Holly. "This is way too much nature Holly."

"Don't worry," said Holly as she shut the door and pulled out Gail's stuff from the back seat. "No one expects you to leave the house. I wouldn't want you getting too much fresh air."

Gail went to reach for her bags but Holly walked gracefully passed her and toward the front porch. She quickly jogged up to Holly and nudged her with her hip. However, before she could say anything about being able to carry her own bags, barking erupted from inside the house pulling her attention to the front door. As they reached the stairs the front door opened and a woman not much older than Holly stood in the frame with her arms crossed. Even with just a glance of this woman in the dark Gail could tell she was just as gorgeous as Holly and Gail started to wonder if all the women in the Stewart family were secretly Amazonion godesses who moved to Canada.

"You're late, Hols," said this woman who Gail assumed was Holly's sister. She seemed really serious and Gail was reminded of Elaine and her chest tightened but then the woman smiled and everything was okay again. She pushed the screen door open and held out her arms. Holly put Gail's stuff down before accepting the hug. "Long time no see, nerd."

Part of Gail thought it was cute but for the most part she stood to the side awkwardly. Physical affection wasn't normal in the Peck family so Gail never really knew how to react to it. When Holly finally pulled away she stepped back and motioned to Gail.

"April, this is Gail. Gail this is my sister, April," said Holly as she picked Gail's bags backup and pushed passed April into the house. "I'm going to drop her stuff off in the guest room. Can you introduce her to everyone?"

"Of course," said April. She smiled at Gail and motioned for her to step inside.

Gail followed Holly and April inside and watched Holly head up the stairs nearby but before she'd gone too far up them she turned and looked at April.

"Except mom," said Holly pointedly.

April nodded then turned to Gail as Holly continued up the stairs.

"I take it you're not a hugger," said April. Gail shook her head and April smiled the same crooked smile as Holly. "Good luck with that. Come on, Mark's in the living room holding back the hell hounds."

Gail quietly followed April into one of the adjoining rooms and spotted a man wrestling to keep hold of the collars on a German Shepherd and a Foxhound. When he spotted April and Gail he released them and they happily bounded over to the two of them and started sniffing and pawing at Gail.

"These two are Lady and Ripley and this is Mark. Mark this is Holly's friend Gail," said April.

"I take it you're the brother," asked Gail. She knew he was but she didn't know what else to say.

"Yup, that's me," said Mark as he moved to one of the sofas since he wasn't holding the dogs back anymore. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Mark looked like he was about to ask Gail something when Holly bounded into the room and stopped next to Gail. Both dogs immediately latched onto Holly for attention and tried to stand up tall enough to get to her face. Neither of them succeeded but it was incredibly cute to watch. Then Holly looked up at Gail and her brows furrowed.

"Here." moved towards Gail and pulled her hat off along with her scarf. "Let's put this stuff away."

Gail's heart picked up pace like it always did when Holly got really close to her. So, she quickly took of her jackets and handed them over before Holly decided to help her with that too. When she turned back toward Holly's siblings she realized they were both watching the two of them. And the smile on April's face made Gail's cheeks feel like they were on fire.

When Holly came back into the room from putting Gail's stuff in the hallway closet she must not have noticed anything out of the ordinary. But she did notice her brother on the sofa.

"Hey, Markimus," said Holly.

"Hey, Hollipotimus," replied Mark. "How was the drive? There was construction on my way in so it took forever. I only just got here a little before you two."

Gail's eyebrows shot up as she turned and looked at Holly with a smirk. Holly refused to turn and look at her but Gail was positive she knew Gail was looking at her and why. That alone was enough teasing material for a year. Gail couldn't shake how uncomfortable she was but the thought of being able to gather hilarious blackmail on Holly was something she hadn't considered before. And it was a fantastic realization.

"It was fine," said Holly with a shrug. "A lot of salt trucks out but that was about it. Where's mom and dad?"

"Dad's in the kitchen finishing dinner. Mom was in the study last time I saw her," said April as she sat down next to Mark and pulled out her phone. Then, as if she remembered something, she looked up and pointed at Mark and Holly. "By the way I'm sorely disappointed in both of you for being late."

"Awww, did you have to set the table?" asked Holly with a smirk.

"Yes, and I hated every second of it," said April. "I'm the oldest, I should get to just sit around and enjoy the festive ambiance of the first dinner of the holidays. Not slaving over proper fork placement."

"That's okay," said Holly as she grabbed Gail's hand and started leading her out of the room toward the back of the house. "I'll probably have to redo it all because you haven't done it in so long."

"Is setting the table really that serious?" asked Gail out of earshot of April and Mark. She had so many questions about how the Stewarts celebrated the holidays so she could be prepared but she also didn't feel like asking idiotic questions in front of anyone other than Holly.

Holly just laughed.

"No," she said. "When we were younger she got mad she had to set the table so she put forks on everyone's seats because that's the sort of revenge a ten year old comes up with. She hasn't been allowed to set the table since."

"I'm guessing someone got a fork in the ass?"

"Yes," said a man's voice as they entered the kitchen. "And I haven't been able to sit right since."

"Dad!" yelled Holly with excitement as she hurried around the island in the middle of the room and into the arms of her father.

Gail couldn't help but smile at how happy Holly was to see her father and she wondered how her own father would react if that was how she greeted him. He'd probably think Gail was on some really serious drugs. Mr. Stewart looked like a genuinely nice man though and he looked at Holly like she was the world to him. Gail's heart ached but she couldn't tell if it was for Holly or because she was a little jealous of her family.

"Dad, this is Gail," said Holly as they broke apart.

"So, this is the infamous Gail," said Holly's dad as he walked over to her and wiped his hand on his apron before holding it out to her. She graciously took it, thankful it wasn't a hug. "Benjamin Stewart. You can call me Ben. Holly's told me so much about you."

"All good I hope, sir," said Gail. She really hoped.

"The majority of it," said Ben with a smile as he glanced over at his daughter who Gail realized looked a little uncomfortably suddenly. Gail met Holly's gaze and tilted her head.

"I might have mentioned you once or twice before we were friends," said Holly sheepishly.

Remembering what Holly thought of her before they were friends, Gail grimaced and wondered exactly what she told them.

"It's quite alright, Gail," said Ben as he clapped one of his hands on her shoulder. "We've all had our own ups and downs."

The sincerity in Ben's voice and the way he smiled at her so warmly made the ache in Gail's chest tighten like a knot. It wasn't jealousy. It was the realization that better parents were out there and that she'd just been stuck with terrible ones. It was loneliness. And she knew she was half a second from her fight or flight reflexes kicking in and sending her running. Then she looked over at Holly who just smiled at her and it's like the weight was lifted. Not all the way but enough to breathe.

"Now, ladies, let an old man finish this dinner so we can all dig in sooner rather than later," said Ben. "Gail, Holly told me you're allergic to tomatoes. That's it, right?"

Gail nodded and so Ben smiled in response and headed back over to the stove while Holly moved back around the island towards Gail.

"Is mom in the study?" asked Holly without looking away from Gail and she wondered if Holly could see the panic that she was feeling moments before.

"She is, but she's on a call, kiddo. Probably won't be able to talk to her until dinner."

"Okay," said Holly. Then she lowered her voice a little to just address Gail. "Come on."

Gail let Holly grab hold of the sleeve of the sweater she still had on and direct her out of the kitchen and out the backdoor onto an enclosed porch. Lady and Ripley happily followed them out and darted for the dog door on the screen door to the backyard. There was a space heater in the middle of the porch surrounded by chairs and Christmas lights had been hung up along the rafters along with a few other decorations. Gail loved how alive the Stewart's house felt. Her own home felt so sterile and cold.

"You okay? You seem a little overwhelmed," said Holly.

Gail smirked and leaned against the wall next to the door.

"It's just different," said Gail. "Very different."

"Bad different?"

Gail shook her head and then looked at Holly who was leaning on the back of one of the chairs. Holly was so smart and funny and a million other things that Gail wasn't. They lived such different lives and had such different families but there they were, brought together by Gail's bad choices and Holly's caring nature. Gail didn't know what she did to be lucky enough to have Holly stumble into her life wearing a Goonies shirt and short shorts but she was forever thankful. Which was something she didn't think she'd ever told her friend.

"Thanks," said Gail.

Holly smiled and tilted her head, letting her long hair fall to one side as her glasses slide slightly down her nose.

"For what?"

"Everything."

"Well, I mean I couldn't just let you sit at home alone," said Holly with a shrug. "That's no way to spend the holidays. Besides, I would have missed hanging out with you."

"Not just for this," said Gail. "I mean, everything."

Holly looked down nervously as her smile widened.

"You don't have to thank me, Gail," said Holly. "What are friends for?"

But they weren't always friends. Gail knew that. If it weren't for Holly helping her that night in the bathroom they might never have been more than strangers. Holly had taken a chance on her.

It was now or never for Gail to take a chance.

While Holly was looking down at her phone, Gail pushed herself off the wall and closed the gap between them. She lightly grazed Holly's chin with her finger and lifted her face until she could comfortably lean in and kiss her. It barely lasted a few seconds but when they broke apart both girls sighed like they were letting out breathes they'd both been holding. Gail backed up and licked her lips while watching Holly carefully. Just as Holly opened her eyes, Ripley and Lady came rushing onto the porch and jumping on Holly like they hadn't just seen her. She looked down at them for a second before looking back up at Gail who smiled slightly and pointed up. Holly looked up at the mistletoe hanging above her head and blinked.

"Don't mind me," said Gail as she reached behind her for the door knob.

From Holly's reaction she was fairly certain that she wasn't as alone in her growing feelings as she had originally thought. But even so, she was Gail Peck and she was going to tread very carefully. There was no sense in getting herself hurt in a place she couldn't easily get away from.

"Wait," said Holly, shaking her head. "Where are you going?"

"To get something to drink," said Gail. "I'm thirsty."

Holly smiled her lopsided smile as Gail bit her bottom lip and walked backwards into the house. Ben greeted her and pointed her in the direction of the sodas when she asked about drinks. She grabbed a can and headed back into the living room where Mark and April were busy playfully arguing over who was the favorite child. As she lifted the can to her lips she couldn't help but lick them and think about that kiss moments ago.

When Holly entered the room with a drink of her own and two happy dogs following her she sat on the sofa next to Gail. They glanced at each other for a moment and smiled. Gail didn't know what would happen next and, while she had an idea, she didn't know for sure how Holly felt. All she knew in that moment was that she still hadn't met Holly's mother yet and that Holly's lips tasted like mango chapstick. Both thoughts made her nervous and she hoped her heart rate slowed to a reasonable speed before dinner.


	10. Chapter 10

Ta-da! I hope you enjoy another chapter. More of the Stewarts. More of Gail being ridiculously gay. Featuring Gail's new best friend Ripley. As always, comments are very much loved and appreciated but not manditory.

I like adding small bits of Holly to the story. And just in case any of you missed it I did go back and add a small piece of Holly to the beginning of Chapter 5 that I had already written but not posted. Thanks and I hope everyone has a lovely day.

* * *

While waiting for her father to finish up the last bit of dinner, Holly decided to wander toward her mother's office and see if she was off the phone. She was really anxious about Gail and her mom meeting and really wanted to talk to her mom before hand. The door to her mom's office was cracked open and Holly pushed it open a little to stick her head in. Her mother's desk faced the door and Holly could see that she wasn't holding her phone but knew she could always be on speaker. So, she slid quietly into the room and waited for her mom to notice her standing there.

"Holly!" said her mom joyously when she looked up. She immediately hopped out of her seat and headed over to Holly with open arms. Holly smiled and met her half way. "How was the drive sweetie? It's supposed to snow pretty bad tonight I was worried you'd leave too late."

"No, we managed to leave pretty early," said Holly.

"We? Your friend said yes? That's fantastic. I know how worried you were about her being alone for the holidays."

"So, I'm guessing you haven't checked your personal?" asked Holly. If her mom was busy with work she rarely looked at her personal phone so she probably didn't see her text about Gail coming with her.

"Not yet. Why?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about Gail before you met her," said Holly. Her mom furrowed her brows and looked rather worried for a minute. "Nothing bad. She just, doesn't really like people touching her."

"Ah," said her mom as relief washed over her face. She patted Holly on the cheek and smiled. "Good to know. I wouldn't want to chase your friend away."

"I don't think you'd chase her away," said Holly with a small laugh. "I just don't want her to be uncomfortable."

Holly wanted Gail to like being at her house and she was just really worried that her family was a little too 1950's television wholesome for Gail to be completely comfortable. She also really didn't want Gail to think she was rubbing her happy family in her face. To be honest, she wanted Gail to feel welcome and like maybe she belonged. If Lisa heard what Holly was thinking she'd probably scrunch up her face and say "that's gay, Hols."

"Gotcha. Now," said her mom as she patted Holly's arm and opened the study door. "Introduce us. You never bring people over, I'm so excited."

Holly swallowed hard and followed her mom out of the study.

* * *

Gail sat on the sofa in the living room with her knees pulled up to her chest and wiggled Ripley's ears back and forth as she scratched behind them. The shepherd was resting her head on Gail's knees and staring at her. Ever since Holly had gotten up and patted the sofa for Ripley to sit next to Gail the big dog had been trying to lick Gail's face like it was the only thing she'd ever wanted in her entire dog life. So, Gail had made herself into a ball and started petting Ripley to keep the slobber monster at bay. Lady on the other hand was being a good beastie and laying next to Mark's feet.

"Who named her Ripley?"

"Holly," said Mark. "She was really into the Alien movies when we found Ripley five years ago. She was the sole survivor of an abandoned litter. Holly thought the name was appropriate."

Gail smiled slightly, though she was sure only Ripley could see it. Holly was such a nerd.

"And what about Lady?"

"Lady is mine," answered Mark. "I honestly just couldn't think of a name and Holly was watching Lady and the Tramp when dad brought her home."

"You know," said April as she looked up from her phone over at Gail and smiled. "They say that dogs tend to be a lot like their owners. I guess it's no surprise Ripley likes you so much."

Gail glanced at April before looking back at Ripley's dopey, adorable face.

"Ripley is Holly's?" asked Gail as she continued to watch the dog's face, so full of bliss at being paid so much attention.

"Oh yeah," said April and Mark at once. They both laughed when they realized they'd said it at the same time. Gail raised an eyebrow as she glanced at them.

"Ripley is really well trained," said April.

"So long as Holly is the one giving the commands," added Mark. "Otherwise she's the biggest asshole."

"I choose to think of it as loyalty," said Holly as she walked into the living room. She grabbed a pillow from the sofa Gail was on and tossed it at her brother's head. "Ripley, down."

Ripley immediately jumped off the couch and laid down on the floor next to Gail. Holly didn't move though and instead sort of shuffled her weight between her feet. Then an older woman Gail immediately pegged as Holly's mom rounded the corner and Gail practically jumped to her feet. She didn't really process the questioning looks from April and Mark as she was busy watching this woman move around the couch towards her. For half a second, Gail tensed her body as she expected a hug but was relieved when their mother outstretched her hand.

"Hello Gail, I'm Patty," said Holly's mom as Gail offered her hand and Patty took hold of it with a firm grip. She was much shorter than Holly and April but looked almost like what Gail would picture an older Holly would look like. "I'm so glad you came. I'd hate for anyone to be alone during any school break let alone one that involves a holiday like Christmas. Wait, do you celebrate Christmas? I don't think I ever asked Holly if you did."

"Yes, ma'am," said Gail as she put her hands in her pockets.

"Oh, dear no need for such formalities," said Patty. She patted Gail on the arm.

Gail glanced over at Holly who was biting her bottom lip but she smiled when she noticed Gail looking at her. Gail could tell Holly had been really nervous about introducing her mother and it had honestly made Gail really anxious. Add on to that the fact that Holly was a bundle of nerves before finals and the way she threw herself into her studies, Gail was actually worried she was about to meet an Elaine doppelganger. But after meeting Holly's family Gail was fairly certain Holly was just nervous about Gail liking her family.

"Alright now kids, I'm going to go check on your father because I don't know about you but I'm starving," said Patty as she headed back towards the kitchen.

Gail plopped back down on the sofa and resumed petting Ripley. The weight of the world felt like it was lifted from her shoulders. Holly's mom was just as ridiculously nice as the rest of her family. That was a much better outcome than what she was expecting. Holly sat down next to her and lightly tapped Gail's hand as a sign to move it.

"Watch this," said Holly as she held up her hand in a high five motion. Ripley immediately sat back on her hind legs and put one of her paws against Holly's hand. "Took two months to get her to do that without treats."

Gail smiled and resumed petting the shepherd when she put her head back on Gail's knees.

'Wow, traitor," said Holly to Ripley as she scratched behind her ear.

Ripley, seeing that Holly was paying attention to her, immediately jumped up onto Holly's lap and licked her face before lying across Holly's lap to put her head back on Gail's legs. Gail smiled and soaked up the attention. She loved animals much more than people. Except maybe Holly. As Gail focused on scratching behind Ripley's ear she moved her other hand to rest on the couch between herself and Holly but froze for a second when she realized that Holly's hand was already there. Taking a deep breath she waited to see if Holly would move her hand but when she didn't Gail moved her fingers along the skin of Holly's hand and between Holly's fingers. After a moment Holly's fingers closed around hers and Gail let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

"So Gail, what are you studying?" asked Mark.

"Criminal Justice," said Gail. She was thankful of years of suppressing her emotions otherwise the way her heart was thundering in her chest would definitely have made talking terrible. "After I finish my associates I'll basically be going to straight to the academy."

"The academy?" Mark tilted his head in a very Holly-esque fashion.

"The Toronto Police College," said Gail.

"You don't need a degree to join do you?" asked April.

"No. I could have just gone straight to the academy but…" Gail shrugged and shook her head. "I'm basically stalling."

"If you don't want to be a cop then why join?" asked Mark.

Gail really didn't like all the focus on her or her future. Though, the way Holly's thumb lightly ran along her finger was really helping to keep her emotions distracted enough to keep her talking. It also kept her from thinking too much about the fact that a cop was nothing compared to what Holly was going to be or what Holly's mom was.

"I want to be an officer," said Gail. "I just want to do it at my own pace."

"That makes sense," said Mark with a nod.

"Alright kids," said Patty as she entered the room. "Dinner is finally ready."

"Hey, don't say it like that," said Ben from the other room. "I thought Holly was going to be later."

As Holly got Ripley to get up so they could move, Gail and Holly's hands untangled and Gail almost immediately missed the contact. She followed Holly into a very nice dining room she hadn't paid much attention to before. A very beautiful wooden table sat in the middle covered in a table cloth decorated by christmas lights. Holly held out a chair for Gail with a smile before sitting in the seat next to her.

When the Peck's sat down to Christmas dinner the previous year it was tense and ended in Gail storming out and crashing her car into a snow covered ditch. That was when her parents took her car away and told her she'd have to work for another one. Then her mother tried to bribe her into joining the academy right out of high school by offering to buy her a new one. It took her parents getting into an argument for Elaine to finally agree to let Gail go to college in the fall.

Dinner with the Stewarts, even if it wasn't Christmas yet, was as different from that as Gail could imagine without picturing unicorns. It was the most ridiculously wholesome experience of her life. Ben and Patty asked their kids questions about school and work. April was a Registered Nurse at a hospital in Toronto and her fiance, Joey, was apparently driving up in a couple of days to join them after visiting his own parents first. Mark was in school for engineering in Ottawa. And then there was Holly. She apparently had the highest GPA of her graduating class and was set to be valedictorian because her mother asked if she knew what she wanted to talk about in her speech. Holly just shrugged and said she was thinking about plagiarizing it.

Gail had never felt more in awe of a person than she did of Holly. She couldn't help but smile as she listened to Holly make smartass remarks about quoting children's books and episodes of Forensic Files while her family laughed. A smartass remark at a Peck dinner ended with looks of disappointment or arguments. Gail couldn't decide if she wanted to never leave or immediately run for the hills.

"Gail," said Ben as he turned the attention of the table to their newest member. "Holly told me you want to be a police officer. Being a public servant is hard work. Do you think you'll be ready for it?"

"I was basically raised for it," said Gail.

"What do you mean?" asked Ben.

Gail wasn't a fan of the way everyone's attention was on her but she swallowed that feeling down.

"My parents are both on the force. So is my brother," said Gail. "I wouldn't be shocked if he made detective in a year or two more."

"Ah, so it's a family profession," said Patty. "That's amazing. And it's what you want to do too?"

"Yeah. I couldn't imagine doing anything else," said Gail. It amazed her that she was being so honest with the Stewarts. "I mean, when I was younger I thought about being a pirate. But I was informed that it's not a real job and there's no health benefits."

"You gotta have health benefits," said Ben with a laugh.

Gail glanced at Holly who was smiling at her and she smiled back. As she went back to finishing the amazing food on the plate in front of her there was a moment where she felt Holly's hand give her knee a light squeeze and her heart skipped. Before Holly could pull her hand away, Gail reached out and held it in place.

The rest of dinner could have literally passed in a blur for all Gail knew because all she could think about was Holly. By the time April got up to call Joey and Mark started helping Ben pick up the dishes, Gail was completely exhausted socially. She was glad they mostly let her quietly listen to them talk because Gail still wasn't sure how much of her sarcastic comments would have been welcome even among their own. When Patty got up and headed towards Holly, Gail finally let go of her hand under the table and it fell back to Holly's side. Patty kissed her daughter's forehead and patted Gail on the shoulder as she wished them goodnight before heading toward the kitchen.

"Come on, I'll show you where the guest room is," said Holly after stacking her dishes on top of Gail's. Ripley, who Gail hadn't noticed was sitting on Holly's feet, pranced out from under the table and Gail had a strong feeling Holly had slipped her food throughout dinner.

Following Ripley and Holly up the stairs, Gail was led up to a landing that seemed to double as an entertainment room. A large television sat on a shelf above a fireplace. It had some game systems hooked up to it and a pair of recliners sat positioned in front of it and years of toys, both kids and dogs, seemed to be stacked as neatly as possible into cubby like shelves along the walls. Along the wall toward the side of the house were the doors to Holly's room and the guest room while the opposite wall held doors to Mark and April's rooms. In the space opposite of the entertainment area was the door to Holly's parents' room. As Holly flipped on the light to the guest room, Gail smirked.

"How come every family's guest room looks the same?" asked Gail in an attempt to calm her nerves. "What person said, a four post bed, one nightstand, one dresser, and a small tv? And who agreed with him?"

"I'm guessing you have a similar guest room?" laughed Holly.

Gail nodded as she walked toward the bed with her suitcase sitting on it. Ripley jumped up on the bed and sniffed at it while Holly shut the door.

"I'm pretty sure we have that same ugly floral pattern comforter too," said Gail.

"What if I said that was my dead grandmother's?" asked Holly with a serious look.

Gail froze.

"Is it?"

"No," said Holly as she shook her head and the one corner of her lips curled up into her beautiful lopsided grin. "Pretty sure we got it on clearance from Target."

Gail rolled her eyes as she turned and watched Ripley paw at her bag. Out of the corner of her eyes she caught Holly moving toward her and she turned to watch her as her heart jumped into her throat. Just a few inches away from her Holly paused and Gail was fairly certain Holly's eyes flickered to Gail's lips before jumping up to her hair. Holly reached up and ran her fingers through it, a gesture Gail was fairly certain was slowly killing her every time she did it because of the way her heart would stop.

"Do you want to grow your hair back out?," asked Holly as she licked her lips. "Otherwise I can cut it while you're here. Or I could even get…"

Wrapping her fingers around the front of Holly's sweater, Gail pulled Holly into her, their lips thankfully meeting before the rest of their bodies crashed into each other. Holly's fingers found purchase in Gail's hair while Gail moved her hands to Holly's hips. Just as Gail teased Holly's mouth open a loud knock on the door made both of them jump apart. Gail was able to sit on the bed right when the door opened and Holly shoved her hands in the pockets on her sweatshirt. They were both terrible actors.

"Hey, Hols, mom wants us to go get firewood from the shed for tonight…" April trailed off as she looked between the two of them. Her eyes narrowed but she kept smiling. Gail knew she knew. "It's supposed to be really cold and dad says the guy won't be out to finish fixing the heater until Friday. Although maybe the two of you have that…"

"Gail, I'll be back in a bit," shouted Holly suddenly as she rushed to the door and pushed her sister out of it. Holly smiled nervously as she looked at Gail before shutting the door. Gail chuckled as she heard Holly's voice clearly though the door before she heard them heading down the stairs. "I'm going to kill you and I'm going to get away with it."

Gail took a deep breath and looked over a Ripley who she realized had managed to find the bag of turkey jerky she'd shoved into her suitcase before she left her house. She pulled the bag out of the dog's grasp and pulled out a piece of jerky and gave it to her before sighing heavily.

"Ripley," said Gail as she patted the dog on the head. "I'm really gay."


	11. Chapter 11

I was listening to "She Keeps Me Warm" while writing the second half of this and I kept laughing at myself. I hope you enjoy this smaller update. Love you guys. Comments are always given a good home and loved.

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It was already snowing when Holly and April made it to the back door and looked out the window toward the shed. As they started to bundle up and pull on snow boots Holly continued to glare at her sister while April just smirked. When they had finally made their way up to the tool shed where the firewood was kept and gotten inside Holly shuffled her feet behind her sister and tried to think of something to say. She had been hoping that April would make some smartass remark to get the ball rolling but so far she'd just been smiling to herself. Holly had finally decided on just calling her sister an asshole when April spoke up.

"I like Gail," said April. "She's cute."

"Don't tell her that," said Holly immediately. "She hates being called cute."

"Do you think she's cute?"

April propped the door slightly open so they could push their ways back out once their arms were laden with logs. Holly watched her sister move over to the pile of wood in the corner next to the door. April then hopped up onto the pile and sat down. She was obviously waiting for a response and didn't plan on leaving until she got it.

"Yes," said Holly. Her anger at her sister had completely disappeared like it always did. April could be obnoxious but she was also Holly's best friend. "April, I'm like 99.9% sure I'm a lesbian."

"What's the 0.1%?"

"Ryan Reynolds," said Holly with a smile.

"Mmmm, yeah that's a good choice," said April as she wiggled her eyebrows. "For real though."

"I don't know," said Holly. She shrugged and leaned against a workbench on the opposite wall from the pile of firewood. "I've so rarely thought about stuff like dating that I just don't know if I'm comfortable saying I'm 100% anything. At least, not yet?"

"That makes sense," said April with a nod. "So, what's going on with Gail?"

"I honestly have no clue," said Holly. "I didn't think she liked girls. I mean, she's only ever talked about ex-boyfriends but she's kissed me twice now and…"

"Okay, hold up," said April with a wave of her hand. "She kissed you? Twice? Holly, I'm pretty sure she likes you. Girl or octopus dressed in a suit."

"Octodad is such a good game," muttered Holly trying to disengage from the topic.

"Holly."

"What? It is."

"I'm sure it's great but that's not what we're talking about," said April as she hopped off the pile of firewood and started loading up her arms with logs before walking over to Holly and handing them over to her. "Gail likes you. So, what's your next step?"

After a moment, Holly shrugged.

The rest of the firewood trip was spent in relative silence as they worked on hauling as much wood as they could back to the house in one trip. They really didn't want to have to go back out for the rest of the night especially since the snow was starting to fall more heavily as they shut the door behind them. After stripping off all their outerwear, April headed into the kitchen while Holly headed up the stairs. As she made it to the landing and looked around her eyes landed on the linen closet and she remembered that she hadn't put any clean towels in the guest bathroom yet. Her mom never left any in there because she didn't want them to gather dust between guests. She grabbed a couple and headed over to the guest room.

Holly turned the doorknob and walked in without thinking, otherwise, she might have taken the two seconds to remember to knock before entering. However, because of her mistake, she ended up staring wide-eyed at a freshly showered Gail Peck wearing nothing but a pair of novelty underwear. Most of Gail was turned away from her and, at first, Gail looked ready to throw the brush in her hand at Holly's head but after a moment she lowered it and smirked as one of her eyebrows jerked upwards.

"Just what I was looking for," said Gail as she turned and walked over to Holly.

It took every ounce of internal strength for Holly to keep looking at Gail's face as she walked up to her and grabbed a towel from her arms. Gail wrapped it around her torso before grabbing the others from Holly.

"Thanks."

"No problem," said Holly. She was actually amazed at how calm she was able to keep herself while the back of brain yelled at her. "Thought they might be useful. Though you appeared to be doing fine without them."

"Don't be fooled. I'm still dripping wet," said Gail with a smirk.

Holly swallowed hard at the knot in her throat and smiled back. Then she backed up slightly while pushing her glasses back up her nose and biting her bottom lip. The sensation helped her keep her nerves under wraps.

"Well, I should let you get some sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

Gail's expression went from a smug grin to that of confusion.

"Holly, it's the holidays. What do you mean we have a lot to do tomorrow?"

Holly just smiled as she left the room. Ripley, who was lying on the bed the whole time looked up, but Holly lifted her hand in a stopping motion.

"Feel free to keep Ripley for the night," said Holly. "She'll help keep you warm if it gets too cold."

With that Holly was back outside of the room and as she shut the door behind her she leaned against the doorframe and let out the longest, shakiest breath. That was the single hardest thing she'd ever done and she had taken the MCAT while she had the flu. The sound of someone coming up the stairs pulled Holly from her thoughts and she glanced over to see April drinking from a soda can as she ascended onto the landing. When April spotted Holly outside of the guest bedroom her eyebrows raised.

"100%," said Holly loud enough for April to hear.

April just laughed and shook her head as she headed to her bedroom door.

* * *

When Gail woke up later that night she was shivering very badly. Ripley's warmth really only took care of one side of her body and at that moment her front felt like it was freezing. If there was one thing Gail hated it was being cold. With barely a second thought, she got up and pulled the ugly floral comforter with her for protection though there was a moment where it was stuck under a slumbering dog. Gail had to shake Ripley awake and get her to get off the bed before she could have her traveling protection from the cold. Though, as her feet hit the floor she wished she had remembered that she didn't wear socks when she slept.

Gritting her teeth against the way her body couldn't stop shivering, Gail headed out of the guest room. The fireplace under the television radiated a mediocre amount of warmth but the door to the guest room just wasn't close enough for it to help at all. It also didn't help that the fire was starting to die so she walked over and poked at the logs before she threw another one on top and headed toward her original destination.

Ripley was already sitting next to Holly's closed door when Gail opened it. Thanks to a string of dim lights along the ceiling, Gail could make out a queen size bed in the opposite corner of the room. As she shuffled her way over to Holly's bed, Ripley headed in front of her and jumped up onto it and nuzzled at the lump Gail could just barely make out lying next to the wall. The lump stirred and revealed a very messy head of hair as Holly turned to look at her intruders.

"Ripley?"

The blinding light of Holly's phone came on and Gail froze.

"Gail? Is everything alright?" Holly sounded like she might as well have still been asleep. "Gail, that is you right?"

Looking Holly over, Gail realized she wasn't wearing her glasses and smiled but decided against messing with her.

"It's cold," said Gail as she climbed, still wrapped in the comforter, into Holly's bed and burrowed her way under the covers then scooted as close to Holly as she could. Ripley politely moved and nestled herself on the other side of Gail.

Holly turned her phone's screen back off and put it back near the edge of the bed behind Gail before moving so Gail could cuddle up with her. Gail rested her head on Holly's arm as she tried to get closer despite already touching Holly. Her legs became disentangled from her floral comforter and hit Holly's.

"Holy shit you're freezing!" said Holly as she practically yelped. She no longer sounded half asleep.

"Yeah. And I blame you and your broken house," said Gail. She was shocked her teeth weren't chattering. "I don't like being cold."

Holly managed to get herself under the floral comforter with Gail and pulled her as closely as she could before she started rubbing Gail's arm.

"Sorry," said Holly.

Holly was so close to Gail that the way her minty breath hit her face sent a completely different shiver down her spine. Not wanting to push this moment anywhere, Gail wiggled forward and buried her head just under Holly's and realized that the scent of Holly's body wash really wasn't going to help her either. Gail just wanted to be warm. Not on fire. It had already been hard enough to not jump Holly when she took the towels from her. Gail knew that years of dating douchebags had ended up setting her bar incredibly low but the way Holly had checked her out without being an overt creeper while she was topless had been oddly flattering. At that point, Gail was well aware that her feelings weren't one-sided but Holly was being very polite about it and god did Gail find it endearing.

"Why don't you like the cold?" asked Holly.

For a moment Gail was silent and she just stared into the dimly lit sweater in front of her. To go from thinking about sex to her family was a very abrupt change for her brain.

"My family has a cottage up north," said Gail quietly. "This one time, my parents and I drive into town, I go into a store to get something and I come out and they're gone. You find your way home through the woods alone. One of many Peck family tradition. Thankfully it was the summer but it wasn't like I was wearing the right clothes to be out in the woods all day and night."

Holly's hand had stilled and she remained silent long enough that Gail became uncomfortable.

"I mean, who enjoys being cold anyways, Holly?"

Another beat of silence and Gail thought made Holly had fallen asleep.

"You have terrible parents," said Holly finally. Then she wrapped her arms around Gail and kissed her gently on the forehead and Gail could swear she melted. "I'm not sure I can willfully let you return to your house."

Gail started laughing. Ripley huffed behind her so she tried to stifle her laughter.

"Gail, I'm kind of serious."

"I know you are," said Gail after she managed to catch her breath. "But I'm going to have to go home. They suck but they're my parents and they're police. I don't have much of a choice."

They went back to lying quietly together. Ripley's breathing was really the only sound Gail heard besides her own heartbeat dancing away in her chest. She hadn't actually gotten over how excited she had been after Holly left the guest room earlier that evening so being cuddled up against Holly was definitely a struggle she hadn't prepared herself for. However, Gail was still cold so she wrapped her free arm around Holly and underneath her sweater. Holly's sharp intake of breath and the way she arched into Gail made Gail snicker.

"How are you so warm when you're barely wearing much more than me?"

"Well, now I'm not going to be…," muttered Holly as she relaxed back into Gail's arm.

"Whatever," said Gail with a small shrug. "You like it."

"I do," said Holly quietly and Gail's heart jumped into her throat.

As Holly's fingers found their way into Gail's hair she thought back to that night and she thought about how she'd never said anything to Holly about it.

"I was disgusted with myself," said Gail rather abruptly. Holly fingers stopped moving but stayed in Gail's hair.

"What?"

"That night," said Gail. "In the bathroom. Some guy from one of my classes invited me to a party. I got drunk and he started kissing me. I shoved him off of me and left. Next thing I know I'm in the bathroom looking at myself in the mirror and I'm just really disgusted with myself and how I always seem to get myself into these stupid situations. One cliche, drunken mental break down later and my hair's on the floor around me and you're walking in the door."

Holly didn't say anything and for a moment Gail's body stiffened as she expected Holly to push her away. Then slowly Holly's fingers started gliding through her hair again and Holly rested her nose against Gail's forehead. Gail relaxed slightly but she couldn't stop herself from expecting the worst.

"You're not disgusting," said Holly.

"No, I guess not," said Gail with a sigh. "I'm just really gay."

Holly chuckled and Gail couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, what a coincidence," said Holly before pausing for a moment. "My best friend's a lesbian."

Gail rolled her eyes even though she knew Holly couldn't see her face in the dark or without her glasses.

"So am I," said Holly finally. "And Gail, you're beautiful."

Gail swallowed hard at the knot in her throat and was thankful that Holly couldn't see in the moment because even with the dim light she wasn't able to see the way Gail's eyes glistened. Neither girl said anything else. Holly just continued to run her fingers through Gail's hair and Gail's fingers subconsciously trailed along Holly's spine as both girls stayed lost in their own thoughts. As the movement of Holly's hand slowed and her breathing evened out Gail thought about how disgustingly happy she was in that moment and remembered how absolutely crushed she had felt that night in the bathroom.

Gail Peck still didn't know how to deal with her feelings but she was having a much better time trying to deal with them than she ever did when she just ignored them.


	12. Chapter 12

I want to give a shout out to everyone who has been helping me with this story whether just from leaving comments, helping me out with information, or plain old just reading the thing. It feels like we have our own tiny little fandom together to keep loving these dorks who never got a good chance.

* * *

Holly walked into her room and looked over at the lump of blankets in her bed with a smile. She had gotten up early to help her dad and brother shovel the snow out of the driveway that hadn't melted with the salt. It had taken more than a few minutes to untangle herself from Gail without moving too abruptly though Holly had a small feeling that Gail was a heavy sleeper and it wouldn't have mattered much if she had just jumped out of bed. Holly was actually incredibly thankful to be out in the cold all morning because she had gotten out of bed feeling like she needed a long cold shower to calm herself down.

Walking over to her window, Holly pulled the light absorbing curtains open and smiled when she heard a frustrated groan from the pile of blankets.

"Rise and shine, Gail."

"No," mumbled Gail into the blankets. "Go shine somewhere else."

"It's my room," said Holly. She crawled into her bed and pulled the blankets back enough to expose Gail's head.

Gail rolled over onto her back and glared up at Holly. The angry pout was too much for Holly and she smiled. Gail reached out and put a hand on Holly's face but before she could push her away she yelped and yanked her hand away.

"Why are you so cold?!"

"I was out shoveling snow," said Holly with a smile. She pushed her glasses up as they slid down her nose.

"Your joy at shoveling snow is gross."

"Not as bad as your breath," laughed Holly with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Holly got out of her bed but not quickly enough to dodge out of the way of the pillow aimed at her head.

"I'll be right back," said Holly as she tossed her pillow back onto the bed and opened her door. Ripley made her way inside as Holly headed out. "Don't kill my dog with your breath."

As Holly shut the door behind her she heard a pillow hit the floor just on the other side of it and laughed. She made her way downstairs to the kitchen and headed straight to the coffee pot. If there was one thing she had learned about Gail Peck it was that she didn't function very well in the morning without coffee and food. Her father was thankfully working on the food part.

"Did you get April and Gail up?" asked Ben when he noticed his daughter next to him.

"Yeah, April is taking a shower and Gail is currently cursing the sunlight," said Holly with a smile.

"Speaking of getting Gail up," said Patty as she entered the room from the study. "I noticed the guest bedroom was empty this morning and noticed she'd made her way into your room. Was everything alright?"

"She was cold," said Holly quickly. "We'll have to put a space heater in there tonight if we still have the extra one."

Not that Holly particularly wanted Gail out of her room. Or her bed.

Holly turned around with the mug she'd just filled for Gail and stopped dead when she saw the skeptical look her mother was giving her.

"Everything okay?" asked Holly cautiously already know what the response was going to be.

"You tell me," said Patty with a smile.

"Maybe later." Holly smiled but the way her heart pounded in her ears was distracting.

"Okay. Later."

Holly left the room as quickly as she could without actually sprinting from the room. She'd only just talked to her sister she still didn't know what she wanted to say to her parents.

"Mom. Dad." Holly muttered to herself as she headed back to her room. "Your youngest is not only a socially awkward nerd obsessed with death but she's also a giant lesbian. What's for breakfast?"

"You know you look insane when you talk to yourself, right?"

Holly jerked her head up and looked over at Gail standing in the doorway to the guest bedroom. She had a blanket wrapped around her and a toothbrush shoved into her mouth. Holly could stop herself from smiling at how Gail's hair stood up.

"Who said I wasn't insane?" asked Holly.

"Good point," said Gail between brushing. "We should discuss your sanity and how it affects me."

"Because it only matters how it affects you?" Like every time she was around Gail, Holly couldn't stop herself from smiling.

Gail scrunched up her face and nodded as if to say "duh" and Holly snickered. Then Gail turned to go back into the room to finish brushing her teeth and Holly walked after her. Putting the coffee mug down on the dresser, Holly followed Gail into the bathroom. The way Gail put so much effort into brushing her teeth while keeping the blanket on was absolutely the most adorable thing she'd ever seen. After Gail rinsed out her mouth, she turned around and leaned against the sink while staring at Holly.

"I brushed my teeth, are you happy?"

"Yes," said Holly. She had been hoping Gail would take the bait and she was more than happy that she hadn't been disappointed.

Holly bit her lip as she entered Gail's space, pressing her lightly against the sink with her body. When Holly looked down at Gail's lips, she let her eyes linger longer than she had ever let them before and ran her thumb along one corner of one of her lips. She wiped away a small amount of toothpaste and smiled. Then as Holly looked back up and met Gail's gaze she felt a pair of hands slide across her hips right along the waistband of her sweatpants. Cold fingers grazed the skin of her stomach and it felt like they left a trail of fire in their wake. Holly saw Gail lick her lips out of the corner of her eyes and lightly cupped her face with both hands. When she leaned in to kiss Gail, her heart skipped when she was met halfway.

The first time Gail had kissed Holly it had caught her off guard. She'd barely had time to kiss back before it was over and she had honestly believed that Gail was just messing with her because of the mistletoe. The second time Gail had kissed Holly she hadn't been expecting it but she had definitely been hoping for it. She had actually managed to kiss back before April had knocked at the door. However, if anyone ever asked Holly when their first kiss was she would say in the guest bathroom of her house while Gail was wrapped in the ugliest floral comforter ever designed.

Holly's fingers moved to the back of Gail's head and slid comfortably into the short hair at the base as she tried to pull her closer. Meanwhile, Gail's tongue slid into her mouth and left her feeling like every inch of her skin was on fire. As she turned her head, Holly's glasses got knocked up when the corner hit Gail's cheek and she immediately pulled them off tossing them into the sink. She knew they needed to stop and get ready to leave but, at the same time, she couldn't imagine doing anything other than kissing Gail. If there had been an ounce of doubt left in Holly's mind that she wasn't completely head over heels for Gail Peck and that this wasn't just some silly infatuation with someone different it was completely gone. Right out the window and into the snow.

"Hey Hollipotimus, get moving. We have to get going if we're gonna get everything done today," yelled Mark from the landing.

Both girls broke apart but only just barely. Their foreheads rested together as they looked at each other while trying to catch their breath.

"Alright!" yelled Holly toward the door before addressing Gail. "We have to get dressed."

"Okay," said Gail before she kissed Holly again then pulled back just enough to speak against Holly's lips. "So, help me get undressed."

"That…," started Holly before being kissed again. "...isn't a good idea."

Gail pushed the comforter off her shoulders and onto the sink and for the first time that morning Holly realized just how little Gail wore to bed. A very thin A-shirt and the same Star Wars underwear Holly had seen the night before were all that stood between Holly's hands and the rest of Gail's skin. As much as Holly wanted to take up Gail's offer especially as her eyes grazed over the front of Gail's shirt in the very cold bathroom she knew she'd rather pry herself away from Gail than have any of her family walk in on them doing anything other than talking ever again.

"Gail…," pleaded Holly. She was going to need Gail to agree to stop because she was having a very hard time putting her foot down.

With a smirk, Gail leaned back against the sink and rolled her eyes.

"Where are we going anyways?" asked Gail as she ran her fingers across the exposed skin between Holly's shirt and her sweatpants.

Holly just smiled and reached behind Gail into the sink for her glasses. When she held them up though she immediately noticed a problem. A huge crack running along the right lens.

"Oops," said Holly.

"Holly, I'm so sorry," said Gail, her demeanor quickly changing as she reached out for Holly's glasses.

"Why?" said Holly with a laugh. "You're not the one who tossed my glasses into the sink."

When Holly looked up from her glasses at Gail's face she smiled. Gail looked so concerned as if she really was the one who had broken them. Holly leaned in and softly kissed Gail before patting her cheek.

"It's fine. I promise," said Holly. "They were already broken actually. I just never had time to get new ones. Besides, Gail, it's not like I'm blind. I'll be fine. Promise. However, I am going to go get dressed now."

Gail pouted as she curled her fingers around the waistband of Holly's sweatpants and pulled Holly forward. She watched Gail's eyes glance down as the waistband gave away easily and Gail's eyebrows shot up while Holly smiled and pushed her hips into Gail's to cut off her view.

"No underwear?" asked Gail still looking down.

"Which is exactly why I need to get dressed," said Holly. Then she planted a small quick kiss on Gail's lips before leaving her standing in the bathroom.

* * *

Despite the house warming up drastically ever since she woke up, Gail was still cold. However, it turned out that she hadn't packed any extra long sleeve shirts or sweaters in the ten minutes she took to throw as many clothes as she could into her travel bag. To be honest, she had mostly thrown the pile of recently washed clothes on her bed into her bag and figured that was all she needed. It also meant she wouldn't need to hang it up so she felt like it was win-win for her. Gail decided that raiding Holly's closet was a better option than freezing.

"Hey, Gail," said Mark from one of the recliners. He had the television on and was watching a hockey game.

"Hey." For a moment Gail just stood nearby watching the game then she remembered something. "Where did Hollipotimus come from?"

"What?" Mark tore his eyes away from the screen and hung his head over the armrest of the chair so he was looking at Gail upside down. "Oh, when Holly was little she called April and me different names all the time because she thought it was funny. Her favorites were Markie-Markie and Markimus. April was either April Showers or she would start singing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song. So, I started calling her Hollipotimus."

Gail snorted.

"What a dork."

"Pretty much," laughed Mark as he lifted his head back up to go back to watching the game. "But the thing about Holly is that you can't help but laugh when she laughs."

Gail smiled and nodded before heading over to Holly's room. She definitely agreed with that sentiment. There was no answer when she knocked on the door so she slipped in and shut the door behind her before looking around. The shower was running in the bathroom so Gail walked over and stopped just short of looking inside.

"Holly?"

A bottle dropped.

"Gail?"

"Hey, um. Do you mind if I borrow a sweatshirt?" Gail tried to ignore the voice in her head telling her that it would only be fair if she stole a glance at Holly in the shower.

"Yeah, that's fine. Just check my closet," said Holly.

"Thanks," said Gail as she looked over and spotted the closet door on the opposite wall from the bed.

Gail had to admit that Holly had a really cool room. She hadn't really paid much attention to it that morning when she got up because she'd mostly been focused on not letting Ripley lick her face. But now that she was awake she definitely appreciated the aesthetic. The walls were painted a desaturated purple and strings of lights lined the edge where the wall met the ceiling. A framed poster of A New Hope hung above the head of her bed and the rest of her walls were covered in overstuffed bookshelves and framed pictures. Compared to her very neat and sterile room back at Peck Prison there was no contest as to who had a better room.

She peeked into Holly's closet before entering the small walk-in and flipping on the light. Gail's own closet was full of clothes for all occasions running from formal wear to ratty work out clothes and lots and lots of shoe boxes. Only half of Holly's closet was clothes and it was all neatly organized and even arranged by color. The other half of Holly's closet was a giant bookshelf that looked like it was built to specifically fit in that space.

"What a nerd," said Gail to herself as she smiled.

Gail found a small section of sweatshirts and flannel button-ups and went through each one. She couldn't stop smiling as she went through the sweatshirts because they all fit Holly so perfectly. They were either nerdy or sports related. When Gail finally settled on one, Holly walked into the closet drying her hair with her towel. Much to Gail's disappointment, she was already dressed.

"Speak friend and enter," said Holly as she tossed her towel into the laundry basket sitting next to her door. "Good choice."

Gail looked at Holly and tilted her head. She knew what she was talking about but it was more fun making Holly feel like she needed to explain nerdy references to her.

"It's from The Fellowship of the Rings. The sweatshirt is, I mean. It's the door at the entrance to..."

"...the mines of Moria. Yeah, the Doors of Durin," said Gail. "Everyone has seen the movies, Holly. It was also on the list of things that are cool now. You should really catch up on your newsletters."

Gail slid passed Holly and headed down to the kitchen. Holly followed after her as she pulled on a blue flannel shirt.

"What else is on this list?"

"Depends. What other nerdy things are you going to reference?"

"I've got a few Harry Potter jokes I've been keeping in," said Holly.

"Oh come on. Harry Potter is the coolest. That's not even nerdy," said Gail as they entered the kitchen.

"No, it's nerdy," laughed April as she rounded the island and handed them both plates full of food. "Sounds to me like you need to accept that you're actually a nerd, Gail."

Gail huffed and rolled her eyes as she copied Holly and pulled out one of the stools at the island in order to sit down and eat. As they ate their breakfast in relative silence, Gail enjoyed watching the Stewarts interact around her. Though she liked the way Holly's leg rested against her own a lot more. The bacon and blueberry pancakes were a close second.

"Joey said he should be here tonight," said April to her parents.

"Should we go out to eat then?" asked Patty as she packed bottles of water into a small cooler.

"How is the housemaid doing?" asked Mark as he entered the room, Lady on his heels.

"Ha. Ha. He's not my housemaid," said April to Gail. "He owns a cleaning company. Mark hasn't liked him since he offered to clean the smell of weed out of his car."

"I like him," said Mark. "It's just more fun to pick on him. He calls me a pothead. I call him a housemaid. It's our relationship. Don't judge us."

"There's nothing wrong with being a housemaid, Mark," said Ben. "They're providing a service."

"I didn't say there was," said Mark in his own defense.

Ben laughed and handed his son a plate.

"Sweetie, where are your glasses?" asked Patty as she lifted Holly's face to look at her.

"They had a crack from baseball and then I dropped them this morning," said Holly quickly. "I already called and can pick my new pair in a couple days."

"So, are you wearing your contacts then?" Gail was fascinated by how caring and invested Patty was in her children. Elaine would have taken that information and moved onto a new subject. Probably something about Steve's latest achievement.

Thinking about Steve actually reminded Gail that she still hadn't told Steve she was with Holly. They really were terrible at being siblings. She quickly shot him a text with her location and Holly's phone number in case of an emergency and told him what was up.

"Not today," said Holly with a smile as she pulled a pair of sunglasses out and put them on. She looked so proud of herself. "Today I have these."

Patty looked at her daughter skeptically and then noticed how Gail was watching them.

"Don't let her cute attitude fool you, Gail," said Patty. "Holly has a habit of not asking for help when she needs it."

"I don't like worrying anyone," said Holly as she avoided Gail's gaze with her sunglasses.

That made Gail think about the way Holly threw herself into her work and how serious she took her studies. Then she thought about the Stewarts. She thought about the old house with a broken heater, the brother still in school, the sister already finished with nursing school, the two dogs, the fact that all three of the vehicles she saw in the driveway were all much older than Holly's, and the way their house was filled with things in a way that only people without disposable income tended to keep their homes. Holly had said that her mother made a lot of money but Gail never stopped to consider the fact that it didn't mean the Stewarts had a lot of money to spend. Gail started to wonder how many scholarships were paying for Holly's stay in school. There was so much about Holly that Gail still didn't know but god did she want to.

When everyone was finished with breakfast, they all started heading toward the front door and putting on large coats and boots. Gail pulled on her boots and for the first time in a long time actually laced them up. Holly refused to tell her where they were going but Gail knew how to watch people and learn from them and the way everyone else was bundling up gave her the impression that she was about to be spending some time in the cold. The last thing she needed was snow in her boots and wet feet.

"Alright Stewart family," said Patty as everyone headed out the door, the dogs following them close behind. "Into the van. Let's get this holiday started off on the right foot."

Gail trailed behind Holly and Ripley as she headed out the door and pulled her scarf around her nose. Patty smiled at her and patted her on the arm as she passed.

"That means you too Gail. You're an honorary Stewart now."

Not knowing how to respond, Gail just nodded and then looked at Holly as Patty turned to lock the door. Holly was looking back at her and Gail found herself mirroring her lopsided grin behind her scarf. When she got into the van and plopped down in the backseat she couldn't stop her heartbeat from starting to speed up as she wondered where they were headed. The Stewarts definitely seemed like the kind of happy Hallmark family that would go caroling and the thought was starting to worry her. Gail really liked Holly but she wasn't sure she was ready for caroling. That seemed like a 'twenty years of marriage' kind of thing not a 'we just started making out' kind of thing. Then her brain immediately jumped back to Patty calling her an honorary Stewart.

Holly climbed in next to Gail followed by Ripley but Gail was lost in thought and just stared off into the distance ahead of her. It wasn't until Holly nudged her that Gail registered the body next to her. Holly smiled and nudged her again while wiggling her phone at her. It only took a moment for Gail to realize what Holly was trying to say and she pulled her phone out to check her messages. She had a couple of texts from Steve making dumb jokes with winking emojis and one from Holly asking if she could hold her hand.

Gail's heart skipped.

Then she snorted and shook her head before reaching over and intertwining her fingers with Holly's. Never, not once, in her entire life had someone asked to hold her hand. Boys just did. They just invaded her space and claimed her as theirs. There was never a doubt in their mind that she'd want them to touch her. Yet there she was in the backseat of a family van, surrounded by the most Brady Bunch family she'd ever met, and the most wonderful person in the entire world was unsure about whether or not Gail, of all people, would want to hold her hand.

Gail was pretty sure her life would make a great episode of the Twilight Zone.


	13. Chapter 13

Let's see if will let me finally post this chapter here.

* * *

When they got to the tree farm, Holly watched Gail's face. She was really nervous that Gail would think all of their Christmas traditions were kind of lame so her plan was to make them surprises. As everyone piled out of the van and bundled back up Holly continued to wait for Gail's reaction. She hopped out of the van after Ripley and turned to look at her friend. Gail's eyes scanned the tree farm and the giant sign giving Christmas tree prices before looking at Holly. Holly didn't think Gail's eyes could look more intense than they usually did but surrounded by the bright, reflective, snow Holly was kind of glad she was wearing her prescription sunglasses so she couldn't be caught staring.

"You guys get your tree as a family?" asked Gail as she smiled. Holly noted that it was not a smirk but an actual smile. "My dad gets ours. It's usually decorated before we even get home."

"My mom is big on family traditions actually involving the whole family," said Holly quietly. "You don't think it's dumb?"

Gail shook her head while patting Ripley on the head. Lady waddled over next to her for her share of the petting.

The lot around them was relatively packed as people came and went so as the Stewarts and Gail made their way across the lot Holly smiled when Gail's hand found her own. They walked through rows of trees looking for the "perfect" one while the Stewarts took turns sharing stories from when the kids were younger. April told a story about Holly and Mark getting lost in the trees when they were little. Apparently, they were both very short until puberty hit and Mark ended up crying while Holly climbed one of the trees so she could figure out where the parking lot was and go back to the car.

"I did not cry," said Mark.

"You cried," said Holly and April at the same time. Gail laughed.

"It's not even like Holly was the only witness," said April. "Your face was red and you had tears running down your face."

April nudged Mark while he huffed.

"You guys are going to make Gail think I'm like the un-manliest man there ever was between all these stories you keep telling," said Mark before he turned to face Gail while walking backward to stay with the group. Holly and Gail immediately let go of each other's hands. Holly missed the contact. "Have they told you that I play hockey?"

Mark flexed his arms over his head before almost tripping. April caught him and helped him right himself. Instead of walking backward he let himself fall back to walk in time with Gail and his sister. Holly rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. She loved her brother with all of her heart but he was such a ham.

"What position?" asked Gail.

"Defenseman," said Mark with a smile as he flexed again. Holly eyed her brother. He had a habit of showing off to people he thought were cute though he was also a habitual flirt so it normally meant very little.

"Center or goalie would have been a little more impressive," said Gail. April and Holly laughed.

"Who's your team?" asked Mark.

"I've lived in Toronto my entire life. Take a guess," said Gail.

"Ugh. The Leafs? Gross," said Mark with a fake look of disgust. "If you're gonna be a Stewart it's gotta be the Senators. Even Joey accepted that. It will also save you a lot of heartache when we beat you guys on Saturday."

"Joey didn't accept anything. He doesn't care about hockey," said April before looking at Gail. "Joey's more of an HGTV man than sports."

"Whatever. He loved the last two times we went! And he watches games with me all the time" said Mark.

"Because he's a nice guy," said Holly before lowering her voice and talking to Gail. "He's like Mr. Rogers."

"You two are the worst siblings," said April.

"April, you know I mean that in the nicest way. I love Mr. Rogers."

"He's my fiance, Hols. I don't want to think about Mr. Rogers while…" April coughed to stop herself from talking. "I don't want to think about Mr. Rogers when I'm with him."

Gail, Holly, and Mark all made disgusted faces while April huffed at them.

Ben finally settled on a tree he really liked and asked all of his family in turn what they thought about it. Holly loved it though she couldn't remember a time where she ever said she didn't. It wasn't so much about finding the perfect tree as it was about spending time together and valuing each other's input. When Ben asked Gail Holly looked over at her and immediately noticed the deer in the headlights look before Gail glossed it over with her normal look of disinterest. She smiled and shrugged and said it was great. Holly smiled but seeing Gail being caught out like that made her realize that telling Gail about all their activities was probably a better idea than throwing Gail to the den of lions. Well, if the lions were Care Bears.

With the tree safely on top of the van, everyone piled back in. The first task of a Stewart Family Christmas was over and done. The rest of the day would just be decorating it and spending time together, usually watching hockey or movies. As Holly sat back down next to Gail and buckled in she was caught off guard when Gail leaned against her and put her head on her shoulder. Her body stiffened for a moment before she took a deep breath and relaxed. Poor Gail looked exhausted. Then Holly glanced around at her family but none of them were paying any attention to the back seat. She thought about the fear of being caught that ran through her a moment before and Holly realized that she had never actually kept anything from her family before. Her sexuality, along with her feelings for Gail, were the first things she hadn't immediately told her entire family in her whole twenty-two years of life.

When they got home, Holly could feel the anxiety building in her chest. Ben and Mark were getting the tree set up in the living area downstairs while everyone else stripped off their outerwear and Holly thought about how to best approach everyone. She certainly didn't want to come out to anyone with Gail there because she didn't want Gail to be forced into an uncomfortable situation. Not to mention the fact that this wasn't really about her feelings for Gail so much as it was about Holly feeling like she was hiding a part of herself from everyone. It was a very weird anxious feeling that Holly was dealing with. She knew her family. She knew they'd be loving and accepting but, after everything with Shawn, part of her was still terrified. If even one person in her family acted the way he did she didn't know if she could deal with it.

A huge break came when Gail pulled on Holly's sleeve to stay in the hallway while everyone else went into the living room to start opening the boxes of decorations.

"Hey, do you care if I go lay down?" asked Gail as she tried to stifle a yawn.

"Sorry, for all the family stuff," said Holly suddenly. "I know it's not really your thing. I just really wanted you to have fun."

"Calm down nerd," said Gail as she put her hands on both of Holly's shoulders as if to hold her still. "I had fun. I like your family. They're weird. I just didn't sleep well last night and waking up early is not my thing."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Okay," said Holly with a small smile. "We're just going to decorate the tree. I'll come get you for lunch?"

"Sounds perfect."

Gail looked behind her into the family room before planting a very quick, and cold, kiss on Holly's lips. When Holly smiled, Gail rolled her eyes and headed upstairs with Ripley on her heels. Holly bit her lip as she watched Gail go then looked toward the family room and exhaled a deep breath she hadn't realized she been holding. It was then or never.

Holly walked into the living room and stood behind the sofa for a moment. Her dad and brother were working on getting the tree to stand up in the little metal holder they had while April was sitting on the floor pulling all of the lights and ornaments out of the storage boxes. Her mother walked into the room a few seconds later with a carrying tray of mugs full of hot chocolate.

"Where's Gail?" asked Patty as she handed out mugs.

"She went to take a nap but that's okay because I wanted to talk to you guys," said Holly as she accepted hers.

"We already know not to hug her Holly. We got the group text," said Mark as she worked making sure the tree was standing up straight.

"That's...not what I wanted to talk about."

Holly looked at April who nodded at her before sipping at her own cup.

"Alright Holly, you have our undivided attention," said Ben as she sat back and looked up at his youngest.

Taking a deep breath to stall time, Holly realized that it was pointless because the ball was already rolling.

"I'm a lesbian."

"Called it!" shouted Mark while almost dropping the tree.

"Mark, stop," said Patty.

"What!? I'm just saying. I called it. I told you guys she was gay when she broke up with Jake," said Mark.

"How was that a giveaway?" asked Holly. She had dated Jake for a few months during her senior year of high school. He was the science club president.

"You talked about his sister more than him," laughed Mark.

"I'm going to ignore your brother's comments for now and say thank you for telling us," said Patty as she pulled Holly into a hug.

Holly had a feeling that no one in her family would care and that her response from her mother would be more than positive but she wasn't entirely prepared for being thanked. Sometimes even Holly was thrown off by how supportive her family was especially after being an RA and seeing how other families acted.

"You're welcome? I mean, you guys really don't care?"

"Holly, why would we care if you were a lesbian?" asked Ben as she pushed himself to his feet. "You're still my little girl. The only difference is that one day you'll bring a girlfriend home instead of a boyfriend."

As Ben clapped a hand on Holly's back his words hung in the air and his brow furrowed. Patty crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Holly expectantly while Mark's jaw dropped and April just smiled into her mug. Holly smiled as innocently as she could but she knew the jig was up.

"So, Gail is…" started Ben with a smile before Holly cut him off.

"I don't know what Gail is," said Holly quickly. "We haven't talked about it."

"But you do like her?" asked Ben.

Holly nodded. Talking about Gail with her parents felt infinitely more awkward than coming out of the closet.

"Well this does throw a small wrench into our plans," said Patty more to herself than anyone else.

"What do you mean?" asked Holly.

"We were going to have Gail move into your room so Joey could take the guest room since April's bed isn't big enough for the two of them."

"I refuse to share a twin bed with someone," said April. "Even someone I love. Just let Gail stay in her room, mom. They're adults. I think they can make grown-up decisions like not doing anything that could lead to an awkward situation."

April winked at Holly and Holly rolled her eyes but smirked.

"Alright," said Patty before pointing at both of her daughters. "But my house rules still apply for both of you. No funny business under my roof."

"It's called sex, mom."

"Yes, thank you, April."

"Mark, you okay?" asked Ben as he turned back to help set up the tree.

"I can't believe my nerdy little sister has a super hot girlfriend," whispered Mark to the tree.

* * *

For the first time since the previous day, Gail was warm. She was wrapped up in the ugly floral comforter with Holly's comforter on top and she had gotten Ripley to snuggle with her under the blankets so that they would hold in the extra body heat. Originally, she had planned to take a nap in the guest room but when Ripley headed to Holly's room she agreed that it sounded like a much better idea. She was not disappointed. It was so much more relaxing to be surrounded by everything Holly especially after how draining the morning had been.

The sound of light humming pulled Gail from her thoughts. She turned over and spotted Holly sitting at her desk which left her back to her bed. Gail smiled as she absentmindedly scratched behind Ripley's ear. It still kind of left her in a daze when she thought about how everything with Holly had started. If someone had told her a few months ago that she'd actually be genuinely happy being around another person she'd have probably had their car towed for even speaking to her.

When Gail noticed that Holly was wearing earbuds she smirked and crawled out of the bed quietly crossing Holly's room. She quickly snatched the earbuds from Holly's ears and put them in while Holly jumped and turned around. Holly saw Gail and she reached out to take her stuff back but Gail had already lifted her phone from the desk, moved back to the bed, and sat with her back against the wall.

"Rock music? Holly, you filthy liar," said Gail. "Here you had me thinking you actually liked pop music. Our entire relationship built on lies."

"Relationship?" asked Holly as she sat on her bed and started petting Ripley who had removed herself from the blankets.

"Don't change the subject," said Gail, quickly trying to do that very thing.

Gail hadn't really meant to say that because it wasn't like they had really talked about anything yet. They just really liked kissing each other. There might have been an implied relationship but Gail also hated assumptions. People made assumptions about her all the time and they were usually wrong. She didn't want to make any about her and Holly and then get let down.

"You're listening to a bunch of rock music," said Gail. "Look at this playlist: Trapt, Shinedown, Theory of a Deadman, Hot Hot Heat, The Birthday Massacre, Three Days Grace, Metric. Oh my god Holly, Silverstein? Are you are actually a 12-year-old emo boy? We need to talk..."

The way Holly was looking at Gail while smiling that lopsided smile made Gail's heart start to race. When Holly had her glasses Gail was able to somewhat ignore how intensely Holly would look at her but without them, there was no buffer. Instead of unpacking the way a different kind of warmth spread through her body, Gail looked back down at Holly's phone and scrolled through her playlists.

"And you have a playlist called 'Gail' and yep, it's full of pop music," said Gail. "Did you really make a playlist with hours of music you don't listen just for me?"

Holly shrugged but kept smiling then held her hands out in front of her with her wrists together.

"You've caught me, Detective Peck," said Holly. "Guess you'll have to haul me in."

Gail's heart skipped before she pushed Holly's hands down. That was a thought process she didn't need at the moment.

"Dork," said Gail as she kept looking through Holly's phone. "You really didn't have to do that."

"I know," said Holly as she tucked her hair behind one ear. "But it's not like I hate pop music. Lisa listens to it and my so does my friend Rachel. Besides the look on your face when Ariana Grande started playing instead of some hipster indie band was priceless."

"Well, you're still apparently not a hipster," said Gail. "12-year-old emo boy is still up for debate though."

"I don't know Gail. Sounds like you know who Silverstein is," laughed Holly.

"Yeah because I have a 12-year-old emo boy for an older brother," said Gail as she rolled her eyes. "His first girlfriend kissed another boy and it was like he played Smile in Your Sleep on fucking repeat. At least you're not a hipster."

"Lisa says there's a fine line between hipster and lesbian," said Holly. "I was always confused because I was never hipster. Looking back it's kind of funny."

Gail and Holly just watched each other for a few minutes. Holly kept petting Ripley and Gail continued to listen to Holly's music. A lot of it was familiar because of Steve while some of it was stuff she'd never heard of before. Gail glanced over at Holly's desk and saw an open textbook with notes strewn about. She looked back at Holly and quirked an eyebrow.

"Are you studying?"

"Oh." Holly looked back at her desk and then back at Gail sheepishly. "Yeah. My sister kicked me out of the living room and I didn't want to wake you up."

"Why do you study so much?" asked Gail before shaking her head. "I mean, that's a dumb question. Studying is important. You just seem to take it to an extreme sometimes."

"I use scholarships to pay for everything," said Holly. "I'm an RA so I can have a private room and I TA for extra money. I just don't want my parents to have to pay for anything and I already know that loans are basically going to be paying my way through grad school. The harder I work now the less I'll have to deal with later, right?"

"True," said Gail. She'd never really thought that much about school. Her parents just paid for it.

"My mom got stuck with a lot of student loan debt," said Holly. "So, even though she makes a lot there have been a few times where things were rough and they paid for most of April's schooling and they're helping Mark pay his rent because of a shitty situation he was in with roommates. I just don't want to add to it."

Gail didn't really know what to say. She had been right about them possibly not having a lot of extra money the way the Pecks did but she never thought about how much that would reflect on Holly. It made a lot of sense. Holly was the youngest and she wanted to help her family even if it was just by not being an extra expense. Holly must have realized Gail didn't really know what to say because she just moved over next to her and sat against the wall with her. She unplugged the earbuds from her phone and pressed play so they could both listen to the music.

"Why'd April kick you out of the living room?"

"Joey is gonna stay in the guest room so I moved your stuff in here," said Holly as she reached over and started messing with Gail's rings. Gail moved her hand over to Holly's lap. "How do you sleep with these things on? I'd feel like I was going to stab myself."

"I thought decorating the tree was a family thing? And I dunno I don't usually sleep with them on. I just fell asleep without thinking about it."

"I came out to everyone. So, I think April just figured I needed to get away from Mark pointing out every little thing that should have made it obvious to me years ago." Holly took one of Gail's finger cuffs off and tried it on.

"How'd it go?"

"Fine. Good, actually. Mark is just being annoying."

"Sounds like a brother to me," said Gail with a laugh. "Steve's new thing is sending me lesbian jokes and memes."

"Apparently, I should have known I was gay years ago," said Holly.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't," said Gail as Holly slipped her finger cuff back on. She'd be lying if she said the way Holly was touching her wasn't turning her on. However, that was a feeling she was definitely going to ignore. Or at least try to. Especially since Holly's bedroom door was open.

"Why?" asked Holly. She smirked at Gail and furrowed her brow.

"Because you'd probably already have a girlfriend and where would that leave me?"

Holly's lips curled into a large smile as she met Gail's gaze.

"What makes you think I'd have a girlfriend?"

Gail looked down and bit her lip as she looked at her hand holding Holly's.

"Did you say anything about me to your parents?"

"I told them that I like you."

Gail met Holly's gaze and smirked. She tried to look more smug than happy. But she was definitely happy.

"You like me, huh?"

"Oh, did I not make it obvious enough?" asked Holly.

"Nope."

Holly leaned toward Gail and kissed her then pulled back enough just to rest her forehead against Gail's.

"You're the only girl I want," said Holly.

"Gross," said Gail as she smiled and looked down. Holly laughed.

"Hey gays," said April as she knocked on the door and walked into the room. "I'd apologize but I've always wanted to say that."

Holly pulled away from Gail and leaned back against the wall.

"What's up April?"

"Tree's done. Offered to come tell you lunch was ready," said April before wiggling her eyebrows. "Figured you'd already be breaking house rules."

Holly rolled her eyes and Gail looked between the two of them.

"What house rules?"

"No hanky panky is allowed under the Stewart roof except by its lawful owners," said April.

"We weren't doing anything," said Holly.

"I dunno. I think being disgustingly cute counts."

"God, you're just as annoying as Mark," said Holly as she got out of the bed.

Gail followed after Holly and got out of bed. Ripley noticed their movements and also jumped down. Gail had to admit, Ripley was the single coolest dog she'd ever met. She just quietly followed Holly and her around and snuggled a lot. Sometimes she'd leave and go run around outside but then she'd come back inside and beeline straight to Holly or Gail.

"I take offense to that," said April in mock surprise. "I've been nothing but supportive."

April left the room as Holly put her notes away inside her textbook and then put the textbook away on a bookshelf. Gail looked around and realized that Holly must have also gathered her stuff out of her car while Gail was sleeping because a lot the stuff Gail had seen in her dorm room was now put away in her room and some empty boxes were broken down next to the door. When Holly turned around and found Gail standing behind her she smiled and held out her hand.

"Phone please."

Gail looked at her hand and back to her face before moving closer. She hooked her fingers around the hem of Holly's pants before sliding the phone into her front pocket and kissing her softly. When she stepped back Holly still had her eyes closed and let out a very visibly shaky breath.

"Come on, Holly. Let's go eat," said Gail as Holly finally opened her eyes again and met her gaze. "I'm starving."

As Gail smiled and headed out of the room, Holly narrowed her eyes and followed after her.

"You do realize that almost everything you say is an innuendo, right?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Gail innocently. Gail would be letting herself down if she didn't test the bounds of the house rules.


	14. Chapter 14

I just want to thank everyone for reading. I know I usually do at the beginning of every chapter but everyone who finds any enjoyment out of reading my stories is important to me and I want you to know that. Comments are always appreciated and I'm sorry about the last chapter update when went all crazy. Thanks for bearing it with me. Also, fun fact: this story is now rated M. Oops.

* * *

After lunch, Holly followed Gail back upstairs to her room to hang out. They left the door open so no one would think there were doing anything they weren't supposed to be. Holly hooked her laptop up to the television on top of one of her bookshelves and let Gail pick a movie out of the ones she had in a CD binder. As Gail flipped through the pages of DVDs, Holly sat in her desk chair and checked her phone again. When she had checked her phone after moving all of Gail's stuff into her room she had noticed a bunch of stuff from Shawn and just deleted it all without a second thought. But as she looked the new ones over, she was noticing an increasingly violent tone to the texts. She screenshotted them and deleted them then blocked his number.

Holly's chest felt tight and she felt like she was having a harder time breathing. Her stomach felt like it dropped out and she swallowed hard at the knot in her throat. It was the same sickening feeling she had when she felt like she was going to fail all of her exams.

"Hey Gail, I'll be back in just a minute okay?"

"Okay," said Gail without looking up. "Can you bring me back a soda?"

"Water. Got it."

"Holly if you bring me a water I'm chucking it at you."

Holly laughed as she left the room. Mark and Ben were in the entertainment room watching an old Senators game so she headed downstairs and through the kitchen to the back porch. After closing the door behind her she pulled out her phone and looked up the number to the precinct Gail had mentioned her brother worked at.

"Fifteen division," said the voice on the line when it picked up.

"Hi, is Officer Peck there?" asked Holly. She wasn't really sure if she could even ask to speak to specific officers. Making this call, she realized she really didn't know anything about the police at all.

"May I ask who's calling and what this is in reference to," asked the voice on the line. Whoever he was he sounded very serious.

"Holly Stewart. I'm a friend of his sister Gail," said Holly.

"Is everything alright? Is Gail okay?" The sudden worry in the guy's voice caught Holly off guard.

"Steve Peck?"

"Is Gail okay?"

"Oh. Yeah. I mean, yes. She's fine," said Holly quickly. "I was calling about something else."

"Wow, okay. Way to scare a guy there," said Steve. "Hold on, give me a minute."

Holly could hear Steve talking to someone nearby him before he came back on the line.

"So, what can I do for you Holly?" The change in demeanor of Steve's voice kind of amused Holly. "If you're trying to give her back already...well, I understand."

"What? No. I like her...here. I like having her here," said Holly before smacking herself on the head for sounding like an idiot. She felt especially embarrassed when she heard Steve laugh. "Do you remember the house party Gail called you about?"

"I'm not going to say yes or no but keep talking," said Steve.

"The guy who lives there, Shawn. He's started sending me messages threatening messages," said Holly quickly. "Threatening me. And Gail."

The line was quiet for a few seconds.

"Give me your number," said Steve. The serious tone in his voice was back. "Do you have the messages? Do you have his number?"

"I deleted the messages but I took screenshots."

Holly gave Steve all the information he asked for and gave a very condensed version of what happened with Shawn including what happened at the party with Gail. She hadn't realized that she had started pacing until April opened the back door with Lady and Ripley following her inside and she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Hey, who you talking to?" asked April as she knocked snow off of her boots. Holly held up a finger.

"Alright, I'm going to take care of this okay?" said Steve. Holly glanced at her sister hoping she couldn't hear. Then that sick anxious feeling was back and Holly realized that it wasn't just coming out to the family that had been bothering her. "You should tell Gail."

"What makes you think I haven't?" asked Holly a little more defensively than she meant.

"Because if you had, I'd be talking to her," said Steve.

"I'll tell her."

The call dropped and Holly looked over at her sister who had just let the dogs back inside the house and closed the door. April was standing with her arms crossed over her chest, her head tilted, and her eyes narrowed. Holly felt like she was sixteen again getting busted by her sister for coming home high at two in the morning while their parents were out of town.

"What's going on Holly?"

Holly sighed and sat down on one of the patio chairs while April sat down across from her. Starting from when Holly made a throwaway comment about how she hadn't dated anyone since high school to Lisa, Holly went through the whole story of what had happened with Shawn. April didn't interrupt and just let her tell the whole story. She didn't say anything until Holly was done.

"So, Gail's brother is going to look into it?"

"Yeah."

April nodded.

"Okay," said April. "But if anything else happens you have to tell mom and dad."

"What? You...you don't think I should tell them now?" asked Holly.

"Oh god no," said April. "You're the baby. They'd flip. Besides, it sounds like you have someone else you need to talk to about it and that will probably be stressful enough."

Holly huffed and rolled her eyes, trying to act like she was annoyed.

"You know it's rude to listen to people's conversations."

"It's also pretty rude to keep things from your girlfriend."

Holly didn't say anything because her brain was too busy trying to process the word girlfriend in relation to Gail. Instead, she just sighed and got up before heading inside with April following behind her. She grabbed a couple of sodas and a water from the fridge before heading upstairs with Ripley and Lady happily following her. When she entered her room, Gail was already lying comfortably in her bed, snuggled into the bedsheets and leaning against the wall looking at her phone. Holly closed the door and tossed the water on the bed. Gail looked at it and groaned before looking up and seeing the soda Holly wiggled in her direction.

"Tease," said Gail as she took one of the drinks and popped it open.

"Hey, Gail," said Holly as she sat down on the corner of the bed.

"Hey, Holly," parroted Gail.

"I didn't leave the room to get sodas."

"Obviously. You've been gone for awhile. I've just been patiently waiting for you to come back and hit the play button on the movie because I'm not getting back up," said Gail as if she deserved a reward for being inconvenienced with the wait.

"I called your brother," said Holly. Gail's brows furrowed. "Shawn texted me some pretty awful things. I didn't want you to get mad or worry."

"So, you called my brother?" asked Gail. She was obviously getting upset. "You should have told me."

"Yeah, that would have made sense," said Holly. She leaned forward and rubbed at the bridge of her nose as she tried to hold in the tears threatening to fall. "I mean, I called your brother. It's not like you wouldn't have found out. I wasn't really thinking."

Holly felt Gail's hands clasp one of hers and let herself be pulled forward. There was a little fumbling involved but Holly ended up under the blankets and nestled in her arms as Gail leaned back against the mountain of pillows she had made against the wall. Holly wrapped her arms around Gail's shoulders and buried her fingers in her hair.

It amazed Holly that just being held by Gail could make her feel so much better but it was like she was able to breathe easier than she had in months. Holly burrowed her head in the crook of Gail's neck and sighed. When she opened her eyes again she just watched the rise and fall of her arm as it rested across Gail's chest.

"I don't like feeling helpless," said Gail quietly. It was almost as if she wasn't even talking to Holly but to herself. "I was raised to be self-sufficient. To take care of myself. I'm supposed to handle my problems. And don't say that he's not my problem because if he's your problem then he's mine too."

Holly smiled and closed her eyes again.

* * *

For almost an hour, Holly slept. About twenty minutes into Gail starting at the ceiling, Patty had knocked on the door to ask Holly something but stopped when she saw them. Gail had honestly expected to be yelled at but Patty just smiled and told Gail that she and Ben were going to the store before Joey showed up. Before she left though she was nice enough to press play on the movie so Gail didn't have to go back to staring at the ceiling. Not that it would have really bothered Gail. Not with the way Holly was lying half on top of her.

When Holly stirred, the way she stretched against Gail sent shivers down her spine. It scared the shit out of Gail when Holly suddenly pushed herself up and looked around.

"Oh my god, what time is it?"

"Like, four-ish?" said Gail quickly.

Holly shook her head and looked down at Gail as if finally registering her surroundings. Gail just wished Holly would register the way her leg was positioned when she had pushed herself up because it wasn't helping her building sexual frustration.

"Hi," said Holly, still a little disoriented.

"Hey. You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry," said Holly as she lowered herself back into Gail's side. "I thought I was late for something."

"Class?"

Holly didn't answer. Instead, she snuggled into Gail's arms and nuzzled her neck.

"Your parents went to the store," said Gail as she tried to ignore her own thoughts. Holly just nodded as her fingers played with Gail's hair.

Originally, Gail had planned on seeing how close to breaking the Stewart Family Rules she could tease Holly but at that moment she was having a hard enough time keeping her own feelings under wraps. It was definitely throwing a wrench in her fun. She never stopped to think about the fact that Holly made her heart race and her skin burn in a way that no one had ever made her feel before. Men had touched her before and while some of it wasn't bad none of it was good. Not the way it was with Holly.

"That night in the diner was when things sort of clicked for me," said Gail to the ceiling. "After the diatom lecture."

"What things?"

"You." Gail ran her fingers along Holly's arm in an attempt to keep her brain focused on something other than her racing heart. Gail Peck was used to talking about her feelings. She never realized how nerve-wracking it could be just trying to share her own thoughts with someone. "The way you laugh at the dumb things I say. The way you look at me. The way you smile. You make my heart race."

Holly pushed herself up to rest on her arm and Gail just looked at her out of the corner of her eyes, afraid her heart might burst if she actually made eye contact. She could tell Holly was smiling.

"That's funny."

"What?" Confused and borderline annoyed at the idea of Holly making fun of her got Gail to turn her head and meet Holly's gaze.

"I mean, it's a funny coincidence," said Holly as she continued to smile. "When I tricked you into saying you'd go I honestly didn't think you'd show up. No one had wanted to go with me. Then you showed up and I was so excited to see you. So, it was sort of like an 'oh' kind of moment."

They just smiled at each other for a minute. Then Holly ran her fingers along Gail's jaw until she was cupping her face and leaned in to kiss her. Gail reached out and pulled Holly against her, letting her hand rest on Holly's hip. The kiss was slow and sweet. At least until Holly pulled her bottom lip with her teeth. With that, Gail moved her arm from under Holly and slid her hand to the back of her neck so she could pull Holly closer as she teased her mouth open.

Holly moaned and Gail could swear her heart stopped as if she had tripped while running. She was barely thinking when she moved her hand up Holly's side but as her hand ran along smooth skin she realized she was pulling Holly's shirt up with it. But the way Holly ground against her urged her hand forward until it rested against her rib cage. Gail tilted her head so their lips broke apart.

"Can I?" asked Gail as she tried to catch her breath.

Holly swallowed and nodded.

Gail could tell she wasn't the only one who needed to breathe so she watched Holly's face as she shifted her hand to cup her breast. Even with the fabric of the bra between her hand and skin, Gail easily found Holly's nipple and rolled it lightly between her thumb and palm. Never in her life had she touched a woman but the way Holly's eyes fluttered closed as she sighed heavily made Gail feel like a damn expert. It definitely helped to spur Gail forward as she nudged Holly's head up and kissed her neck.

"Gail," breathed Holly above her.

The sound of Holly's voice as she said her name sent a shiver down Gail's spine. Gail nipped at the skin in front of her before Holly turned her head back down and attacked Gail's lips with her own.

"Gail, we should stop," sighed Holly against Gail's lips.

"Okay," said Gail.

However, the way Holly continued to push against her told Gail that Holly was just as incapable of stopping as she was. It became especially clear when Holly reached back and undid her own bra. As Holly's tongue slid against her own, Gail moved her hand under the loose fabric. The way Holly quietly moaned against her lips and the way her breathing hitched every time Gail rolled her nipple between her fingers was intoxicating. Gail felt like her entire body was on fire and she wasn't even the one being touched.

The sudden and sharp sound of the doorbell pulled both of them back to the world around them. They both froze except for their heaving chests and looked at each other. Holly rolled her eyes and let out a single, dry, laugh.

"Fuck," she said. "That's probably Joey."

For half a second Gail couldn't remember who the fuck Joey was. She dropped her hand to Holly's waist and shook her head.

"Oh. That means…"

"Dinner," finished Holly with a smile. "And being social."

"For the first time in my life I can say I'm not hungry," said Gail as she continued to watch Holly's face in a state of awe at just how strongly she felt for her. When she registered her own words she smirked. "For food."

Holly laughed and rolled her eyes as she pushed herself up onto her knees.

"You've been a lesbian for all of five minutes and you make more sex jokes than Lisa."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"I knew you would," said Holly as she leaned down and lightly kissed Gail before sitting back up. "If you'll excuse me, I need an ice cold shower."

Gail smirked as Holly got up fro the bed and headed toward her bathroom. As she reached the door Holly stopped for a moment and pulled her shirt off to throw it in the laundry basket next to the door and Gail's smug look was quickly wiped off her face. After Holly discarded her bra in the basket she looked at Gail and smirked before going into the bathroom and closing the door halfway. A few minutes later, Gail heard the water turn on.

Sitting up, Gail looked around the room. Then a knock at the door pulled her attention away from her increasingly dirty thoughts. When the door didn't immediately open Gail smirked.

"Come in," said Gail.

April opened the door a little and when she only spotted Gail on the bed she smiled and entered the room. She looked toward the bathroom when she heard the shower and nodded.

"Ah, okay," said April. "You can meet Joey later. But make sure you change into something a little nicer, we're going out to eat tonight."

"Gotcha," said Gail.

When April shut the bedroom door behind her Gail looked over at the bathroom before sighing and getting up to get changed. She thanked the stars above that a nice pair of jeans had been in the pile of laundry on her bed as she dug through her travel bag. Though she didn't have many options when it came to shirts. So, instead of settling on a t-shirt she decided to borrow something of Holly's.

As she finished buttoning up a nice blue shirt, Holly walked into the closet with a towel wrapped around her. Gail let her eyes wander before meeting Holly's gaze.

"Nice shirt," said Holly as she smiled.

"April said 'dress nice' and all I packed were t-shirts," said Gail as she held her hands out and looked down.

"You look beautiful," said Holly as she pulled Gail to her and kissed her.

Then Holly pushed her out of the closet and closed the door much to Gail's disappointment. Gail sighed and went about picking up Holly's room a little. She turned off the tv and unplugged Holly's laptop then brought it to the desk and sat down. When Holly came out of the closet, Gail smiled.

"Okay, now say 'I'm gay'."

Holly rolled her eyes and smiled as she worked on drying her hair. Gail was amazed by how good Holly looked in a button-up, sweater, and skirt.

"You look great," said Gail. "But won't you be cold?"

"You'll just have to keep me warm," said Holly with a wink as she pulled a pair of knee-high boots out from under her bed and sat down to put them on.

They finished gathering up their things and headed downstairs to everyone, except Patty, hanging out in the living room. Ripley got up and immediately headed over to them. Gail scratched her head before being led over to a tall man with dark hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and a smile just as warm as any of the Stewarts. April was holding onto his arm as they talked to Ben and she smiled when Holly and Gail walked over.

"Gail Peck, this is Joseph Clark," said April.

"Everyone just calls me Joey," he said as he reached out his hand to shake Gail's.

"I've heard a lot about you," said Gail. "I think April might actually have a crush on you."

April and Joey laughed while Ben and Holly smiled.

"I'd hope so," said Joey. "Otherwise it's going to be a really awkward marriage."

After a little more small talk, Patty entered the living room and everyone piled out of the house and split up between Holly's SUV and the van. Gail had been the second to last out of the door so the only one that saw her give Ripley and Lady the tiny biscuits she'd had in her pocket was Holly who just smiled.

They went out to a nice restaurant. Not fancy but very nice. Also very different from the upscale places Elaine always insisted they went out to for family meals. It was all about status with her. Where would Elaine want the Pecks to be seen eating even though no one was actually looking? Gail thought about it and realized that everything she was doing was going against her mother's wishes and that brought her much more joy than it probably would have for people with normal families.

Throughout dinner, Gail mostly managed to stay out of the ring of focus, only really having to go through the standard "what she was studying" chit-chat with Joey. That was more than okay with her because she liked watching the Stewarts as they talked. It taught her so much about them as individuals. April was more of a smartass than Holly and Gail combined, Mark was a show-off, and Holly was more reserved. But she was also quick to jump in so she could separate her siblings if they were arguing or if she could make a ridiculous science pun. Joey was very soft spoken and mostly laughed at everyone's jokes but he did enjoy talking about April which actually seemed to make the woman blush.

However, to Gail, the best part of dinner was being pressed against Holly in the circular booth holding her hand almost the entire night and not having to care if anyone saw because they all knew and none of them cared. That night, Gail laughed, made ridiculous jokes, and felt freer than she had in a long time, if not ever. The thought of being a Stewart felt more like home than being a Peck ever had. A feeling she was definitely going to keep to herself.


	15. Chapter 15

Sorry about the later update on here. People on Ao3 and tumblr got it earlier because was being a butt last night when I wanted to update it. I hope you guys like it. Little bit of fluff and a little bit of angst. But don't worry guys Christmas is right around the corner (in the story lol). Love y'all. Thanks for your comments. They keep me going. I live off of them.

* * *

The day after they picked up the Christmas tree was spent playing board games and just generally the whole family spending time together talking. Holly beat everyone at Clue, twice. Then Peggy proceeded to wreck everyone in scrabble. Gail had sat out of that game and just watched Holly play so Holly was fairly certain that Gail knew she let her mom win. Finally, Gail had proceeded to send everyone into bankruptcy while playing Monopoly through her ruthless deal-making and bribery. It probably didn't help that Holly was more than willing to conspire with her.

At some point, they had talked about the fact that they used to make gingerbread houses when they were younger and Gail had expressed interest since she'd never made anything out of gingerbread. Without any of them knowing, Ben proceeded to make a pan of gingerbread. When it was presented to Gail, along with icing and different kinds of sprinkles, Holly watched as Gail proceeded to build the Millennium Falcon out of gingerbread with childlike enthusiasm. By the time they went to bed that night Gail had practically passed out in Holly's arms the second she lied down.

Then, Saturday morning, they were woken up by April telling them to start getting ready since they'd be in Toronto for the rest of the day. Holly wasn't saying she was a little disappointed in not being able to fool around with Gail but she was definitely thinking it very loudly. She found herself preoccupied with the way Gail had touched her anytime she wasn't distracted by something else and it was leaving her very frustrated.

"Holly, where are we going?" asked Gail for what had to be the tenth time in the past hour.

At first, Gail had just quietly accepted that they were heading somewhere but she had quickly grown bored and started trying to bother Holly. As the youngest herself though, Holly was mostly just amused by her antics. She was much too used to being the annoying one to be annoyed by something as simple as asking the same question over and over.

"Toronto," said Holly, also for the tenth time.

Gail glared at her again and pushed her with her foot. Holly laughed and went to back to reading. They were in the back of the van and Gail was sitting sideways with her feet propped up in Holly's lap. Not too much longer and they would be in Toronto and headed to the Air Canada Centre but Holly just thought it was funny how much Gail was pouting about not knowing where they were going. Holly's phone vibrated so she pulled it out to check. It was just a message from Gail asking where they were going. Holly laughed and looked over at Gail who just pouted at her angrily.

She also had a few texts from Lisa and Rachel. Lisa was asking lewd questions about her and Gail so she ignored them but Rachel mentioned that she'd finally be home that night and wanted to know when Holly wanted to hang out.

"Holly, just tell her already," said Mark from the seats in front of them. "We'll be there soon anyway."

"We're going to Air Canada," said Holly as she closed her book and put it back in her bag behind the seat.

For a second Gail's face was scrunched up as if she didn't understand why they'd be going there until her eyes widened. Then she grabbed one of Holly's hands.

"The game? We're going to the game?"

Holly smiled and nodded.

"We go to a game every year," said Mark. "Why'd you think we're all wearing Senators gear?"

"Well, I just assumed you were a crazy fan with no shame," said Gail as she traced Holly's fingers with her own. "And parents can get away with wearing anything."

"What about Holly?"

"What about Holly? She's wearing normal clothes," said Gail.

Mark turned and looked Holly over. He must not have noticed but she hadn't put on anything for their team that morning. She loved the Senators and she'd definitely be rooting for them but she didn't want Gail to feel left out as the only one in their group not decked out in team merchandise.

"Holly, what gives?" asked Mark. "You haven't turned traitor have you?"

"No," said Holly simply.

Mark narrowed his eyes at her before turning back around in his seat and putting his headphones back on.

"I haven't been to a hockey game since I was thirteen," said Gail.

"Why?" Holly took Gail's hand in her own and started playing with her finger cuffs and rings. It amazed Holly how Gail pretty much always remembered to put them on every morning. She wondered if Gail thought about them like Holly thought about her watch; she felt naked without it. She wondered other things about Gail's fingers but she was really trying hard to not think about that.

"My dad used to take me," said Gail. "Then he got promoted and didn't really have time anymore. There was one season where I actually got to see almost every one of the Leafs' home games."

Despite Gail being a very stoic person normally, Holly could tell that Gail was excited. She kept looking at the road signs and looking at Holly and smiling. As they turned off the highway and into the city, Gail had started to entertain herself by putting all of her jewelry on Holly. When they had finally parked Gail had only taken back the majority of all the things she wore on her fingers. However, she had left one ring. A black skull ring that was missing one of the stones in its eyes.

They still had hours before the game started so when they met up with April and Joey, who had driven together, they decided to start with lunch at a restaurant near the Hockey Hall of Fame. After lunch the headed over to the hall of fame and ended up spending most of the day there. It was pretty crowded but, in Holly's mind, it just gave her more of a reason to be as close as possible to Gail. When Gail wrapped her arm around Holly's waist as they watched Mark shoot off against an animated Carey Price, Holly had one of those moments where she couldn't believe how happy she was with Gail.

Granted, Holly had always been relatively happy. She had supportive parents, protective siblings, she had close friends growing up, and she had good friends now. School also helped build her confidence because she was always excelling and even when she did struggle her parents helped her cope and pick up the pieces. So, Holly was very secure with herself on her own. Which that might have been why she never cared about being in a relationship because she never felt like she needed one to complete herself. But the way Gail fit into her life it wasn't about completing anything. Gail was the cherry on top.

Holly snorted because of where her brain went with thoughts about cherries and whipped cream after that and Gail looked at her amused but worried.

"You okay, nerd?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Holly. "I just thought of the time Mark tripped and hit himself in the face with his stick."

Holly was really glad she never dealt with raging hormones as a teenager. They probably would have been ten times worse. She tried to look as nonchalant as possible but the way Gail looked at her for a minute with a smirk made her feel like Gail knew what she was thinking about and it wasn't hockey.

When they made it to the Air Canada Centre the sun was going down and the doors were already open. They headed inside with the crowds of people and were able to get to their seats with no problem. Holly couldn't take her eyes off Gail the whole time. She was amazed she hadn't run into anything. Gail's eyes darted everywhere as if she was trying to take everything in and the way she gripped Holly's hand reminded her of the way she used to hold onto April's when she was little. Holly was her tether just keeping her from getting lost.

As they sat down waiting for the game to start, Holly was still focused on Gail. The rest of her family might as well have not even been there. Their seats were in the back row of the closest section to center ice. They were the perfect seats. A lot better than the ones they had last year behind the net. But all Holly could see was the gorgeous blonde next to her.

"What?" Gail realized that Holly was watching her and looked her up and down before nudging her. "Forget what I look like in HD?"

Holly smirked.

"I'm wearing contacts, Gail. But you look beautiful at any resolution."

Gail rolled her eyes but Holly caught her smiling before she turned away.

Holly took the opportunity to lean in and kiss Gail's cheek, just next to her ear.

"You are beautiful, Gail," said Holly quietly.

Gail turned her head and rested her forehead against Holly's. Her bright blue eyes bore into Holly's and made it feel like she could read her thoughts. She was really glad that wasn't possible because she really didn't need Gail to know how much she kept thinking about sex. Gail quickly kissed Holly before sitting back up.

"You think you're so smooth," said Gail as she got comfortable leaning against Holly.

"Do I?"

Holly thought she was the opposite of smooth but she definitely took the opportunity to wrap her arm around Gail's shoulder.

"You two are so cute it's disgusting," said April as she got up and squeezed by them with Joey and Mark following her. "We're getting beers, you want one Hols?"

"No thanks but I'll take a water and a coke," said Holly.

"I can give you money for a coke," said Gail as she reached for her wallet.

April held up her hand.

"I've got you, Gail."

When they got back their arms were laden with goodies. Holly and Gail were handed pizza and drinks while everything else was doled out to their parents and themselves. They finished eating well before the start of the game so they were all free to cheer with the crowd around them when the players hit the ice.

The game was amazing but Holly found herself watching Gail a lot more than the puck. It definitely didn't phase Gail for a second that she was hanging out with a family of Senators fans. She cheered just as loudly as the other Leafs fans around them. When the Senators scored the first point she swore loudly and used a few choice words that had Mark laughing from down the row. Holly didn't shy away from cheering on her team but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't elated when the Leafs scored and Gail squeezed her hand in delight. She had to stop Gail from flipping off Mark a couple of times but it was still the best game she'd ever been to in her life.

aaaaaaaaaa

As they headed back the van, Gail felt like she was on cloud nine. The Maple Leafs had won and Mark's ego was completely deflated as he was left sulking at the back of the group. Ben and April were talking about what the Senators should have done differently while Patty and Joey talked about the fight that had broken out closer to the rink as the game had ended. As a guest in the Stewart house though Gail was keeping quiet even though she absolutely wanted to gloat. She figured she'd save it until she was alone with Holly and then just tease her about it. Holly would be the most likely to put up with it anyways.

Just as they reached the van, Gail's phone started ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket and her throat dropped into her stomach. It was like a pair of hands reached up and yanked her off of cloud nine and slammed her into the ground. Elaine Peck's hands to be exact.

Gail's body went rigid and she froze as she stared at her phone. Holly had been yanked backward when Gail stopped and was now looking at her incredibly worried. The rest of the Stewarts stopped when they realized part of their party were no longer with them and looked back towards Gail who barely even registered any of their existences. Before the last ring sent the call to voicemail, Gail answered and turned away from the group as she walked slightly away.

"Mother."

"Where are you? You're obviously not at home since I've been calling the house with no answer and your brother refuses to tell me where you are."

"I'm out."

"Where?"

"With a friend."

"Gail, if you are out partying with those no good druggies from your high school…"

"I'm not," said Gail sternly. "I just left the Leafs game with a friend from uni."

Gail glanced behind her and saw that Holly had backed her family away from her and that they were waiting just slightly down the sidewalk for her. Holly was watching her though and when they locked eyes she smiled somberly. Gail tried to smile but she was sure it was more like a grimace.

"Gail, I will not clean up any more of your messes. Especially if this is a repeat of senior year," said Elaine. "I know you haven't been home at all since school has gotten out."

"I've been staying at her house," said Gail as she looked away from Holly and back at the ground.

"'Her'?"

"My friend, Holly."

"What's her last name?"

Gail's anger was boiling just below the surface but the idea of her mother using police resources to look up dirt on Holly was making it hard to keep the lid on it.

"I'm not going to let you stalk another one of my friends just because you don't trust me," said Gail.

"Is that what you call those people? 'Friends'?"

"Holly's not like them."

"We'll see. This conversation isn't over. I'm going to enjoy my vacation despite your attempts to ruin it for your father and me. But we will be talking about this when I get home. After what you put us through, you don't get to just go galavanting around the city however you like."

The call dropped and Gail just stared at her phone for a minute, fuming. It's always about them. Everything was always about them. Who cared that they left their daughter alone for Christmas? Who cared that they chased away every single friend she had from high school? No, everything was Gail's fault.

When Gail felt a hand on her shoulder she jumped and pulled away as she turned around.

"Gail? Are you okay?"

Holly looked a little scared and it made Gail's heart drop. Her anger didn't disappear but it did lessen greatly. She shook her head but couldn't find her voice to speak.

"I can take you home if you need to…"

Gail shook her head again. That was the last place she wanted to be.

"Okay."

Holly held out her hand and Gail took it but instead of leading her anywhere like Gail thought she was pulled into a very tight hug. Tears threatened the corners of her eyes as she fought to remain in control of her emotions. But as Holly rubbed her back and gently whispered about how it was going to be okay in her ear Gail couldn't keep it in anymore. She found herself burying her face in Holly's coat as she sobbed quietly and clutched tightly at her.

"Sweetie," said Ben as he addressed Holly. "We're going to go get the van. We'll pick you guys up here okay? April is going to stay with you and Mark's going to head back with Joey."

Gail felt Holly nod. After a minute, Gail tried to say something but it came out muffled by the fabric.

"What was that?"

Gail turned her head slightly so that her cheek was still pressed into Holly's shoulder but she could talk.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Ruining everything."

"What? Gail, you haven't ruined anything," said Holly as she pulled Gail closer.

"Yeah," said April from nearby. "One time I got really drunk and threw up on the guy next to me."

"That was last year," said Holly.

"That wasn't important," said April. "Also, don't forget the time you accidentally hit that guy in the head when you stood up to cheer and he slugged you."

"Yeah, I don't think I'll ever forget that, April. Both of my eyes were black for a month. Everyone at school called me a raccoon. Thank you."

Gail just continued to cling to Holly as she and April continued to tell horror stories from previous hockey games they'd been to. She was no longer crying and even chuckled a few times but she still felt like absolute hell. A quick blast of a car horn alerted them to the presence of the van and they all climbed in. Gail looked down the whole time as she climbed into the back with Holly. She really didn't feel like being seen. If she could be invisible for a while that would be a much better state of being.

At some point during the ride back to the Stewarts, Gail fell asleep while leaning on Holly. She woke up when the van pulled to a stop and sat up straight when she remembered the phone call with her mother. As everyone else got out she remained sitting just staring down at her lap.

"Gail?"

She didn't respond.

Holly got out of the van for a minute before climbing back in, turning it on, and shutting the door. She sat down next to Gail but didn't say anything.

"You don't have to sit out here with me," said Gail finally.

"I want to."

Gail scoffed and played with one of her finger cuffs as a distraction.

"I do," said Holly more adamantly. "I don't know what you're going through but I want to be here for you. I want to be with you, Gail. I like being with you."

"Even though I've managed to ruin what was a great day?"

"You haven't ruined anything. I'm serious, Gail. We all still had an amazing day. A bump in the road at the end of it doesn't retroactively make everything else terrible."

Holly turned to face Gail better and leaned against the back of the seat.

"I still got to hold your hand and kiss you when no one was looking," said Holly. Gail glanced over at her and Holly smiled. "The Leafs still won."

"You don't like the Leafs."

"But I like you. And you like the Leafs."

Holly sighed and scooted closer to Gail. She carefully reached out as if she was waiting for Gail to make away but Gail just watched her rest her hand on top of her own.

"I'm a terrible person," said Gail. "I'm pretty sure I'm a sociopath."

A loud and sudden laugh made Gail actually turn and look at Holly.

"Sorry," said Holly as she kept laughing. "I just, Gail, you are not a sociopath. You're literally drowning in guilt right now because you think you ruined everyone's night. You are not a sociopath."

Gail watched Holly carefully. She was literally the most beautiful woman Gail had ever met in her life. The fact that she was also the sweetest just made her more irresistible. How Gail had managed to trick someone as amazing and wonderful into liking her impetuous ass, Gail had zero clues. Gail wanted nothing more than to push Holly away from her. Make some big deal about something small or blow up about something stupid and just run away so she wouldn't ruin Holly's life with her presence. But she looked into Holly's eyes and all she could do was stare.

"Come inside with me," said Holly as she squeezed Gail's hand. "Let's lay down and watch a movie. Or I can stay in my sister's room if you want some space."

Letting herself be led from the van she waited for Holly to turn it off and lock it up before they headed inside together. Everyone was off somewhere else in the house so Gail was able to safely get to Holly's room without being seen, which she appreciated. Holly stayed downstairs to give the keys to her parents and tell them she was inside while Gail just stood in the middle of Holly's room looking around.

When Holly got back upstairs she shut the door and lightly turned Gail toward her. Gail watched as Holly reached up and ran her fingers through Gail's hair. She leaned into her touch and let her eyes close for a second before opening her eyes to meet Holly's gave again.

"Have I ever mentioned how beautiful you are you?"

"Oh really?" asked Gail sarcastically. She was sure her face was streaked with tears and she probably looked terrible.

"Yes, really," said Holly with a smile as she cupped Gail's face and ran her thumb along Gail's lips.

Holly leaned in and kissed Gail ever so softly. It was the sweetest, most caring kiss Gail had ever experienced that Gail was pretty sure she was close to crying again but for a completely different reason. All Elaine did was take, take, take. There were times when Gail felt so empty that she was fairly certain she had nothing left to give anyone. However, in that moment, Gail wanted nothing more but to give Holly the world.

"Come on, Gail," said Holly as she rested their foreheads together. "Let's get some sleep."


	16. Chapter 16

15 minutes until I have to go to work! Damn I'm good. I hope you enjoy! Comments are always loved and appreciated.

* * *

Holly forced open her eyes as she felt around next to her for Gail and didn't feel anything. She looked at her phone and when she realized it was five in the morning and that Gail was missing she woke her a little more quickly. Looking around, she noticed that a dim light was on in the bathroom and she headed over to the cracked door. She peeked in and saw Gail sitting in the bathtub staring at her phone screen and sighed. At least she knew where Gail was. It was more than a little terrifying waking up and having her gone. It was rather chilly in her room despite her space heater doing its best so Holly grabbed a blanket before knocking on the bathroom door. Gail jumped a little as she looked over.

"Hey. Did I wake you up?"

Holly shook her head as she entered the bathroom. She shuffled over to the tub and paused.

"Can I join you?"

Gail nodded so Holly climbed in and sat across from Gail while spreading the blanket over both of their laps. Holly leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

"Holly, go back to bed," said Gail with a small chuckle.

"But you're in here."

"I couldn't sleep. I didn't want to wake you up."

Holly opened her eyes and looked over at Gail. Even in the dim light of Gail's phone and without her glasses she could see that Gail had been crying.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

Almost simultaneously, Gail shook her head and nodded and shrugged. Holly smiled warmly. She couldn't imagine how hard it was for Gail talking about things rather than bottling them up. The phone light turned off and they were enveloped in the darkness.

"I just wish my parents were different," said Gail. "I dunno, more like yours maybe."

For a moment, Holly just thought about what to say next.

"My parents weren't always like this," said Holly. "It took a lot of work."

Holly could hear Gail make a scoffing noise.

"I mean, they weren't like the worst people ever or anything," said Holly for clarification. "But it was harder for April growing up than it ever was for me. I'm not sure if you've noticed but April is a bit of a smartass and she loves a good party. She spent a lot of time grounded when she was a teenager. They'd set boundaries, she'd break them. They'd set tighter boundaries, she'd break them even faster. It was a never-ending cycle. April was miserable. Our parents were tired. They didn't like punishing her all the time."

"What changed?"

"They did," said Holly. "They wanted to do better. They took classes. They forced themselves to unlearn ideas they had about what constituted as a punishable offense. They learned the differences between boundaries and prison walls. So, by the time I became a teenager, there wasn't even a reason for me to rebel. There was nothing to rebel against. They supported me when I made mistakes just as much as they did when I excelled. The fact that my sister doesn't resent me is honestly a miracle."

"What about Mark?"

Holly laughed.

"Mark was the good kid. He did his homework. Played hockey. Never stayed out past curfew. The only talk he ever got was about locking his door if he needed 'alone time'. We've all walked in on things we've never wanted to see."

"Oh, so you were a party animal compared to that huh?" Holly knew Gail was smiling at the idea.

"You'd be amazed at the nonsense a bunch of sexually repressed nerds can get up to on the weekends," said Holly with a laugh. "It didn't help that my best friend Rachel is actually a social butterfly. I was dragged to more parties than I'd care to admit. And I've ruined just as many by explaining the physics involved in doing a keg stand."

There was a moment of silence after Gail laughed.

"So, your parents just changed? Just like that?"

"Of course not. It was gradual," said Holly. "When April was seventeen she had to have her stomach pumped because she'd drank so much. A year before that she probably would have been grounded for months but instead, they just made her go to an AA meeting and listen to stories from people who didn't make it out of those situations. Five years after that, I got wasted at a party, had incredibly awkward sex, and we all got to go to Disney World for a week. It took a lot of work on their part to change into the weirdos they are today."

"You've had sex?"

"What is that so hard to believe?" Holly laughed and pushed at Gail with her foot.

"Not at all. I just remember you talking about how all you ever did was study. Now I'm learning about this whole other side of you. I'm just shocked," said Gail in a very mocking tone. Holly rolled her eyes despite them being in the dark. "It's like I don't even know who you are anymore."

Holly chose to ignore her smartass comments though she was definitely smiling.

"I should actually message him and tell him that it turns out I'm a lesbian. He'll find that funny."

"You still talk to this guy?" asked Gail a twinge of something in her voice.

"Yeah, I went to prom with Phil. He was one of the few people I was close with besides Rachel."

"Didn't you say the guy you went to prom with was gay?"

"Yup."

"Ohhhhhhh," said Gail as if it hit her as to why the sex was so awkward.

"Yeah," said Holly. "Why? Gail Peck, are you jealous?"

"No."

"Good," said Holly. Being with Gail in the dark and not under the penetrating gaze of light blue eyes seemed to embolden Holly. "Because you're the only one I think about being with."

Gail didn't say anything and Holly wondered if maybe she said too much. Then she felt a hand searching for hers in the dark and she met it with her own and held their hands together in her lap. As Holly gently ran her fingers over Gail's skin she stared into the dark and got lost in her own thoughts. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to make Gail happy. She wanted Gail to feel safe and loved and like the world wasn't this terrible, uncaring place that her parents had obviously tricked her into thinking was true.

"Let's go lay down," said Holly. "You can stay up if you want to. You won't bother me. I just want to be near you."

"I mean, I guess. If you really need me to lay with you," said Gail playfully.

Holly smiled.

"I do."

"Okay."

* * *

Later that morning, as the sun peeked around the edges of the light blocking curtains, Gail was still awake. She hadn't been able to fall asleep at all. Even though, at one point, she was just lying down and staring into the dark at the ceiling. She just couldn't turn her brain off enough to get any sleep. But instead of hiding away in the bathroom she stayed with Holly in her bed. Even when Gail drastically moved from lying down to sitting up Holly didn't say a word. She just waited for Gail to stop moving before wrapping her arms back around her and curling up next to her again.

Since the last time she had sat up Gail had been reading ridiculous articles while absentmindedly running her fingers through Holly's hair. But at some point, she had just put in headphones to listen to music and found herself looking at Holly's face as she slept. Holly was the most beautiful person she'd ever met in her entire life and Gail just couldn't get over the fact that Holly wanted to be with her. She felt like she'd been nothing but a nuisance since the day they met, a blight on Holly's otherwise wholesome life.

A mellow tune played in Gail's ears as she slowly moved into lying next to Holly. She ghosted her fingertips along Holly's cheek and then tangled them in the mess of hair behind her head as she tried to wiggle as close to Holly as she could without waking her. However, Holly stirred for a moment and her eyes fluttered open for just a second before she smiled. One arm wrapped around Girl's waist and pulled her closer. Their foreheads touched and Gail swallowed hard.

Gail Peck never learned how to deal with her feelings. Mostly because she was never allowed the freedom to have any. Movies and friends always felt like they were lying when they talked about feelings for other people because Gail had tried. She had tried to have relationships. She had tried to care about people as strongly as they cared about her and it always felt like there was a sheet of glass between her and them. No matter how close she thought she was to them it was never close enough and she was always just a cold bitch in the end.

There was no glass with Holly. There was no space.

Gail was in love with Holly.

"Sorry," said Gail.

"For what?" mumbled Holly as she buried her face in Gail's shirt.

"Waking you up again."

Holly chuckled and just took one of the ear pieces and slid it into her ear. When Holly wrapped her arm around Gail she let her arm shift her shirt up as she skimmed her fingers along Gail's spine.

"I just don't want to breathe on you," said Holly with a small laugh.

"I'm sure it's not that bad, Holly," said Gail. "And how do you always sound like you're in such a good mood when you wake up?"

Pulling back and looking at Gail, Holly smiled. She looked like she was going to say something but then she just shook her head and snuggled back into Gail's chest. Gail furrowed her brow and poked at Holly's side which made her squirm.

"What was that look for?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," said Holly as she fended off Gail's hand and wiggled away from her.

"Didn't seem like nothing. Seemed like something." Gail kept trying to tickle Holly's sides but she was being fended off rather well. "Come on, Hollipotimus. Tell me."

As soon as the nickname left her lips, Holly grabbed Gail's wrists and pushed them above her head as she got up and straddled Gail. Holly held Gail's hands above her head with one hand while pulling Gail's phone out from under them and putting it on her dresser. Gail took the opportunity to squirm to try and free herself but Holly quickly went back to using both hands to hold her down.

"No."

"Awwww, no Hollipotimus?" Gail really hoped Holly couldn't tell how much of a turn on it was being pinned down to the bed like she was. Gail certainly hadn't been expecting it.

"No," repeated Holly as she shook her head for emphasis.

"I mean, you can't really stop me from saying Hollipoti-"

Even a sweet, closed mouth kiss from Holly could effectively shut Gail up. When Holly pulled back and looked down at her Gail just narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. Holly looked like she was going to say something again but just smiled before biting her bottom lip.

"What now? Or are you not going to tell me this either?"

Holly just continued to smile. Then she rolled her eyes.

"I'm always in a good mood with you, Gail. It has nothing to do with the morning." Gail's heartbeat skipped and started picking up its pace especially as Holly leaned down and kissed her cheek before whispering in her ear. "And I was just thinking of something else you could do with your tongue."

Gail was fairly certain she saw her life flash before her eyes as she stared at the ceiling. When Holly sat up with a huge grin on her face all Gail could get her brain to process doing was looking at her. After a moment, Holly got up and headed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

By the time Gail was able to get herself functioning again and into a sitting position Holly was exiting the bathroom wrapped in a towel and drying her hair with another one. She smiled at her and Gail swallowed before smiling back. When Holly walked into the closet Gail expected her to close it like she had been doing up to that point. Instead, she got to watch as Holly pulled a pair of TARDIS boy shorts on.

Taking a chance, Gail silently crawled out of the bed and moved behind Holly. She gently brushed Holly's hair to one side as he kissed the back of her neck. Holly let out a heavy, shaky sigh and Gail smiled as she kissed a line down her neck and onto her shoulder. Gail grazed her fingers along the waistband of Holly's underwear before lightly trailing them up and around Holly's ribcage. The way Gail could literally feel Holly's breathing quicken under her fingers was exhilarating. Just as her hands skimmed the underside of Holly's breasts, Holly's hands covered her own and held them still.

Right before panic could set in that maybe she had gone too far, Holly was intertwining her fingers with Gail's hands as she moved her hands away.

"As much as I would love for this to continue…"

"House rules?" asked Gail quietly.

Holly turned around and Gail's eyes immediately darted down before Holly was pulling her face up with a finger under her chin and kissing her. The image of Holly's perfect boobs was definitely already burned into Gail's retinas. Although now her brain was preoccupied with why Holly didn't have any tan lines even as Holly ran her tongue along Gail's lips. As they broke apart and rested their foreheads together Holly smiled. Gail, meanwhile, was definitely trying to sneak another peek at parts of Holly's body she hadn't gotten to see before then.

"Gail, I'm the only Stewart who hasn't broken that rule," said Holly. "And I'd love nothing more than to break it with you. Later."

Gail's eyes snapped up to meet Holly's and Holly smirked as Gail's heart raced.

"But," continued Holly. "I have to get dressed. You can stay here and try to sleep if you want."

"Where are you going?"

"Church. My dad likes to go every year on Christmas Eve," said Holly as she pulled away and went back to getting dressed. Gail leaned back against the door frame and took the opportunity to run her eyes over Holly's body. It was one thing to see bits and pieces here and there but to actually see how tone Holly was all at once was another thing entirely. "But you definitely don't have to go if you don't want to."

"Sure, why not?"

Holly finished pulling her pants on before looking at Gail.

"Really?"

"Yeah," said Gail with a shrug. "I probably wouldn't be able to sleep anyways."

It wasn't like Gail wanted to spend time away from Holly. Once her parents were back from their cruise she was sure to be under house arrest and wouldn't be able to see Holly again until school started back up. She wanted to spend as much time as she could with her while she was able to. Even if it meant going to church.

"You'll have to let me borrow one of your shirts again though," said Gail as she picked her one nice pair of pants out of her bag right outside the closet door. When she turned back to look at Holly she was holding up a nice button up. Gail reached for it but when she grabbed it, Holly pulled her forward rather than letting go of the shirt. They're bodies met and Holly smirked.

"Have I mentioned how good you look in my clothes?"

"Cheeky," said Gail as she tried not to smile. "Also, I hope God doesn't mind but I've run out of underwear."

Gail walked backward out of the closet and smirked when Holly's eyes glanced down at her sweatpants.

After getting dressed they managed to make it out of Holly's room without too much distracting kissing. Everyone looked very nicely dressed and Gail wondered if she should really go just because she really just had on a button up shirt, some jeans, and more eyeliner than the Bible probably allowed. They mostly finished getting ready in silence since it seemed that only Holly, Ben, and Joey were morning people. Everyone else looked like they'd rather still be fast asleep.

The church they went to was very nice and very packed. The sermon was nice and not as boring as Gail expected it to be. She hadn't actually been to church for an incredibly long time. Her grandparents cared more about it than her parents ever did. They were too busy to spend an hour every Sunday listening to someone other than themselves talk. So, when her grandparents passed they just stopped going. All Gail could really think was that at least it wasn't Catholic mass. Never again would Gail sit for three hours with the only payoff being cheap wine and a flavorless cracker.

Holly sat between Gail and her father during the service and Gail couldn't help but smile at how cute it was when Holly held her dad's hand and leaned on his shoulder. Sitting next to Ben, Patty held her husband's other hand but Gail could tell she was about as interested in the service as Gail. Everyone pretty much kept their focus on the person speaking at the front while Patty was staring off into space. Gail decided to follow suit rather than being a creep and looking at everyone. She didn't know how good of an idea it was in the end though because her mind just wandered to thoughts of breaking the "house rule" with Holly and how long "later" actually meant.

As the service ended and everyone slowly left or milled around talking to each other, Ben went up to the pastor and Gail watched as they addressed each other like old friends. Everyone except Gail and Patty headed to the bathrooms. Gail wasn't really sure what to say and was honestly kind of scared of being alone with Holly's mother.

"Not really a church person?" asked Patty.

Gail shook her head.

"I understand," said Patty as she nodded her head. "Me neither."

"Then why go?" asked Gail.

Patty smiled and crossed her legs as she leaned back against the bench. Gail crossed her arms over her chest. She really hoped that Patty couldn't tell how afraid of her she really was. The last person Gail wanted to somehow rub the wrong way was Holly's psychiatrist mother.

"Ben."

Gail furrowed her brow as she continued to look at Patty.

"His adopted father was a regular church goer," said Patty as she watched her husband. "They came here every Sunday together. Ben was never very religious but it meant a lot to Terrance so he went. When Terrance passed, Ben couldn't bring himself to go every Sunday but we go every Christmas Eve because that was their favorite service."

"So, none of you even like church?" asked Gail. The Stewarts were a lot weirder than she originally thought and she honestly hadn't figured that was possible.

"Well, yes and no," said Patty with a laugh. "Ben does and Mark likes to go sometimes. Apparently, he even has a church he goes to sometimes in Ottawa. I'm honestly not sure how April feels about it. But Holly and I just don't have the patience for it. But if something is important to the people you love the best you can do for them is to make it important to you. You don't have to be interested in it but you should understand why it matters."

Patty smiled at her and Gail couldn't help but smile a little back. Just then Holly slid next to her on the bench and nudged her side.

"You come here often?" asked Holly playfully.

"You are way too awake," said Gail but she smiled before becoming nervous when she realized Patty was watching them with a smile of her own. "So, what's next on the list of things you guys do for the holidays?"

"Pancakes!" April called from the end of the row.

"Or waffles," said Holly. "Waffles are equally good."

Gail tilted her head.

"We go out for breakfast," added Patty.

"I'm a french toast man myself," said Ben as he walked up. "You lot ready to get going?"

As they all headed out to the parking lot, Gail couldn't help replaying what Patty had said. She looked down at Holly's hand and intertwined their fingers as they walked. Holly looked over at her and smiled.

"So, is Forensic Friends still accepting new members or do I have to like pass some nerd test or something?" asked Gail as she watched Holly from the corner of her eyes. "Because I'd probably fail pretty hard."

Holly smiled and squeezed Gail's hand.

"Gail, you don't have to join."

"I know," said Gail. "I'm a firm believer in not doing things I don't want to do."

"Well, I'd have to talk it over with the president," said Holly with mock seriousness. "And the owner of the club. It has to be a unanimous agreement."

Gail turned and stared at Holly with an incredulous look while Holly tried hard not to smile. She already knew Holly was the president and she had a strong suspicion that Holly also started the club.

"I have it on good authority they'll probably say yes though," said Holly as her lips couldn't stop themselves from turning upwards.

Rolling her eyes, Gail couldn't stop herself from smiling as they piled into the van. It scared the shit out of Gail how much she loved Holly and ever since that morning when she admitted it to herself she couldn't stop thinking about it. Every time Holly looked at her and smiled or made some ridiculous joke she couldn't stop herself from telling herself how in love with Holly she was. If she wasn't careful she knew she was going to end up saying it out loud and she was absolutely terrified of that happening.


End file.
